LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 ANN GUEST
 
 Printed Books 
 
 E. Gordon Duff
 
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 DnmnoftrufuipUrre 
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 tinactcpiababraoa 
 
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 rccfia ma fanrta hattDiim^uajBnftf ai 
 oi&qDirr -aDunarr ^ regf Btgntie toro 
 ozb: trrrau^na ru famfa mo j&ajB no 
 flro^jB-et rege nfo- jB-i annftite nolta 
 i omito o:itoin?t0-ar^ battolirr ft 
 
 
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 ra cfr rt nora ttuoro y:o ointe nlji offri 
 
 nuio iifi nut nbi offrrur tior f,irnfimn 
 
 1--ROM SCHOKKFER S CANON OF THF. MASS
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 By 
 
 E. Gordon Duff 
 
 London 
 Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. 
 
 MDCCCXCIII

 
 LFBRAHY 
 
 ? CALJFORr-^ 
 
 - . - : 
 
 TO 
 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 HENRY BRADSHAW 
 
 v ITI AaAet
 
 Preface 
 
 * 
 
 IN the following pages I have endeavoured to give 
 a short account of the introduction of printing into 
 the principal countries and towns of Europe, and to 
 bring our information on the subject as far as possible 
 up to date. 
 
 Small books on large subjects are for the most 
 part both superficial and imperfect, and I am afraid 
 the present book forms no exception to this rule, but 
 my excuse must be that I have attempted rather to 
 draw attention to more out of the way information 
 than to recapitulate what is already to be found in 
 the majority of bibliographical books. 
 
 Above all, I have tried as far as possible to confine 
 myself to facts and avoid theories, for only by work- 
 ing from facts can we help to keep bibliography in 
 the position, to which Henry Bradshaw raised it, of 
 a scientific study. 
 
 And, in the words of a learned Warden of my 
 own college, ' if any shall suggest, that some of the
 
 viii Preface 
 
 inquiries here insisted upon do seem too minute and 
 trivial for any prudent Man to bestow his serious 
 thoughts and time about, such persons may know, 
 that the discovery of the true nature and cause of 
 any the most minute thing, doth promote real 
 knowledge, and therefore cannot be unfit for any 
 Man's endeavours who is willing to contribute to 
 the advancement of Learning.' 
 
 I must express my best thanks to two friends, 
 Mr. F. J. H. Jenkinson, University Librarian, Cam- 
 bridge ; and Mr. J. P. Edmond, Librarian to the 
 Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, for very kindly 
 reading through the proofs of the entire book and 
 making many useful suggestions and corrections. 
 
 E. G. D. 
 
 March 1893.
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 STEPS TOWARDS THE INVENTION, i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE INVENTION OF PRINTING, 21 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 SPREAD OF PRINTING IN GERMANY, 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 ITALY, 59 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 FRANCE, 78 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE Low COUNTRIES, 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL DENMARK AND SWEDEN, . . 113 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WESTMINSTER : CAXTON WYNKYN DE WORDE JULIAN 
 
 NOTARY, 125
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 OXFORD AND ST. ALBAN'S, 147 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 LONDON: JOHN LETTOU WILLIAM DE MACHLINIA 
 
 RICHARD PYNSON, 160 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE ART IN GREAT BRITAIN, . . -174 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE STUDY OF BOOKBINDING, ,185 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE COLLECTING AND DESCRIBING OF EARLY PRINTED 
 
 BOOKS, 201 
 
 INDEX OF PRINTERS AND PLACES, 213
 
 Illustrations 
 
 PAGE FROM THE CANON OF THE MASS PRINTED BY 
 SCHOEFFER ABOUT 1458 (much reduced), . Frontispiece 
 
 (From the unique copy in the Bodleian.) 
 
 PLATE PAGE 
 
 i. PAGE 3 OF THE 'MIRABILIA ROM^,' . ... . 11 
 (From the copy in the British Museum.) 
 
 n. THE CATALOGUE ISSUED BY SCHOEFFER ABOUT 1469 
 
 (reduced), 31 
 
 (Reproduced from a full-sized facsimile of the original 
 in the Munich Library, published in the Centralblatt 
 fur Bibliotkekswesen,) 
 
 in. PAGE 3 OF THE ' LIBER EPISTOLARUM ' OF GASPARINUS 
 
 BARZIZIUS, the first book printed at Paris, ... 83 
 
 (From the copy in the British Museum.) 
 
 iv. FRAGMENT OF AN EDITION OF THE ' DOCTRINALE ' OF 
 
 ALEXANDER CALLUS, one of the so-called ' Costeriana,' 98 
 
 (Reduced from the copy in the British Museum.) 
 
 v. PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE ' SARUM BREVIARY,' 127 
 (Printed at Cologne about 1475.) 
 
 vi. PART OF A PAGE FROM THE 'GOLDEN LEGEND,' . . 144 
 
 (Printed by Julian Notary in 1503. From the copy in 
 the British Museum.)
 
 xii Illustrations 
 
 PLATE PAGE 
 
 VII. FIRST PAGE OF THE ' EXCITAT1O AD ELEMOSINAM 
 
 FACIENDAM,' 152 
 
 (Printed at Oxford about 1485. From the unique copy 
 in the British Museum.) 
 
 VIH. PAGE OF THE ' HORJE AD USUM SARUM,' . . . 163 
 
 (Printed at London by Machlinia. v From the Fragment 
 in the University Library, Cambridge. ) 
 
 IX. LAST PAGE OF THE ' FESTUM NOMINIS JESU,' . . 167 
 
 (Printed at London by Pynson about 1493. From the 
 unique copy in the British Museum. ) 
 
 x. STAMPED BINDING WITH THE DEVICE OF PYNSON, . 193 
 (From the original in the British Museum.)
 
 EARLY PRINTED BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STEPS TOWARDS THE INVENTION. 
 
 WHEN we speak of the invention of printing, we 
 mean the invention of the art of multiplying books 
 by means of single types capable of being used again 
 and again in different combinations for the printing 
 of different books. Taking the word printing in its 
 widest sense, it means merely the impression of any 
 image ; and the art of impressing or stamping words 
 or pictures seems to have been known from the very 
 earliest times. The handles of Greek amphorae, the 
 bases of Roman lamps and vases, were often im- 
 pressed with the maker's name, or other legend, by 
 means of a stamp. This was the basis of the art, and 
 Cicero (De Nat. Deorum, ii. 37) had suggested the 
 combination of single letters into sentences. Quin- 
 tilian refers to stencil plates as a guide to writing; and 
 stamps with letters cut in relief were in common use 
 amongst the Romans. The need for the invention, 
 however, was not great, and it was never made. The 
 first practical printing, both from blocks and mov- 
 
 A
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 able type, was done in China. As early as A.D. 593 
 the more important texts were printed from engraved 
 wooden plates by the order of the Emperor Wen-ti, 
 and in the eleventh century printing from movable 
 type was introduced by a certain smith named 
 Picheng. The multiplicity of Chinese characters 
 rendered the discovery of movable type of little 
 economical value, and the older system of block 
 printing has found favour even up to the present 
 time. In the same way, Corea and Japan, though 
 both had experimented with movable type, returned 
 to their former custom of block printing. 
 
 It is impossible now to determine whether rumours 
 of the art could have reached Europe from China, 
 and have acted as incentives to its practice. Writers 
 on early printing scout the idea ; and there is little to 
 oppose to their verdict, with our present uncertain 
 knowledge. Modern discoveries, however, point to 
 the relations of China with foreign countries in the 
 fourteenth century having been much more important 
 than is generally supposed. ^ 
 
 The earliest productions in the nature of prints 
 from wooden blocks upon paper which we find in 
 Europe, are single sheets bearing generally the image 
 of a saint. From their perishable nature but few of 
 these prints have come down to our times; and though 
 we have evidence that they were being produced, at 
 any rate as early as the fourteenth, perhaps even as 
 the thirteenth century, the earliest print with a 
 definite and unquestioned date still in existence is
 
 Steps towards the Invention 
 
 the 'St. Christopher' of 1423. This print was dis- 
 covered in 1769 by Heinecken, pasted inside the 
 binding of a manuscript in the library of the Convent 
 of the Chartreuse at Buxheim in Swabia. The manu- 
 script, which is now in the Spencer Library, 1 is 
 entitled Laus Virginum, is dated 1417, and is said 
 to have been given to the Monastery of Buxheim by 
 a certain Anna, Canoness of Buchau, 'who is known to 
 have been living in 1427.' On the inside of the other 
 board of the binding is pasted a cut of the Annuncia- 
 tion, said to be of the same age and workmanship as 
 the St Christopher. It is worth noticing that there 
 seem to have been some wood engravers in this 
 Swabian monastery, who engraved the book-plate for 
 the books given by ' Dominus Hildibrandus Branden- 
 burg de Bibraco' towards the end of the fifteenth 
 century ; and these book-plates are printed on the 
 reverse sides of pieces of an earlier block-book, very 
 probably engraved and printed in the monastery for 
 presentation to travellers or pilgrims. 
 
 The date on the celebrated Brussels print of 1418 
 has unfortunately been tampered with, so that its 
 authenticity is questioned. The print was found by 
 an inn-keeper in 1848, fixed inside an old chest, and 
 it was soon acquired by the Royal Library at Brussels. 
 
 1 The Spencer Library has now passed into the possession of Mrs. 
 Rylands, of Manchester ; but as many of the early printed books in it 
 are described in Dibdin's Bibliothecd Spenceriand, and as it is so 
 widely known under the name of the Spencer Library, it has been 
 thought best, in order to avoid confusion, to refer to it under its old 
 name throughout the present book.
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 Since the date has been touched up with a pencil, and 
 at the same time some authorities consider 1468 to 
 be the right reading, it is best to consider the St. 
 Christopher as the earliest dated woodcut. Though 
 these two are the earliest dated prints known, it is, 
 of course, most probable that some others which are 
 undated may be earlier ; but to fix even an approxi- 
 mate date to them is in most cases impossible. 
 The conventional way in which religious subjects 
 were treated, and the extraordinary care with which 
 one cutter copied from another, makes it difficult even 
 for a specialist to arrive at any very definite con- 
 clusions. 
 
 In England, wood engraving does not seem to have 
 been much practised before the introduction of print- 
 ing, but there are one or two cuts that may be 
 assigned to an earlier period. Mr. Ottley, in his 
 Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing, drew 
 attention to a curious Image of Pity which he had 
 found sewn on the blank leaf at the beginning of 
 a manuscript service-book. This cut, of which he 
 gives a facsimile in his book, is now in the British 
 Museum. Another cut, very similar in design and 
 execution, and probably of about the same date, was 
 found a few years ago in the Bodleian, also inserted 
 at the beginning of a manuscript service-book. In 
 the upper part of the cut is a half-length figure of 
 our Lord, with the hands crossed, standing in front 
 of the cross. On a label at the top of the cross is 
 an inscription, the first part of which is clearly O
 
 Steps towards the Invention 
 
 BACIAEVC, but the second part is not clear. In 
 the British Museum cut it has been read ' hora 3*;' and 
 though this interpretation is ingenious, and might be 
 made to fit with the Museum copy (which has un- 
 fortunately been touched up), the clearer lettering of 
 the Bodleian copy, which has evidently the same 
 inscription, shows that this reading can hardly be 
 accepted. 
 
 Below the figure we have the text of the in- 
 dulgence 
 
 1 Seynt gregor' with othir' popes & bysshoppes yn feer 
 Have graunted* of pardon xxvi dayes & xxvi Mill' yeer' 
 To theym that befor" this fygur' on their" knees 
 Deuoutly say v pater noster & v Auees.' 
 
 Ottley was of opinion that his cut might be of as 
 early a date as the St. Christopher ; but that is, of 
 course, a point impossible to determine. From the 
 writing of the indulgence, Bradshaw considered it to 
 belong to the northern part of England ; and the 
 subject is differently treated from other specimens 
 of the Image of Pity issued subsequently to the intro- 
 duction of printing, for in them the various symbols of 
 the Passion are arranged as a border round the central 
 figure. Inserted at the end of a Sarum Book of 
 Hours in the British Museum is a drawing of an 
 Image of Pity, with some prayers below, which 
 resembles in many ways the earlier cuts. 
 
 The woodcut alphabet, described by Ottley, now 
 in the British Museum, has been considered to 
 be of English production, because on one of the
 
 6 Early Printed Books 
 
 prints is written in very early writing the two words 
 ' London ' and ' Bechamsted.' There seems very little 
 reason beyond this for ascribing these letters to an 
 English workman, though it is worth noticing that 
 they were originally bound up in a small volume, 
 each letter being pasted on a guard formed of frag- 
 ments of English manuscript of the fifteenth century. 
 
 In the Weigel Collection was a specimen of English 
 block-printing which is now in the British Museum ; 
 it is part of some verses on the Seven Virtues, but it 
 is hard to ascribe any date to it. Another early cut 
 is mentioned by Bradshaw as existing in Ely Cathe- 
 dral. It is a cut of a lion, and is fixed against one of 
 the pillars in the choir, close to the tomb of Bishop 
 Gray, whose device it represents. This bishop died 
 in 14/9, so that an approximate date may be given 
 to the cut. It is very probable that these last two 
 specimens of block-printing are later than the intro- 
 duction of printing into England, and the only ones 
 that should be dated earlier are the British Museum 
 and Bodleian Images of Pity. 
 
 A good many single woodcuts were executed in 
 England before the close of the fifteenth century. 
 They were mostly Images of Pity, such as have been 
 mentioned, or ' rosaries ' containing religious emblems, 
 with the initials I. H. S. A curious cut in the 
 Bodleian represents the Judgment, and below this a 
 body in a shroud. Above the cut is printed, ' Surgite 
 mortui Venite ad Judicium,' and below on either side 
 of a shield the words, ' Arma Beate Birgitte De Syon/
 
 Steps towards the Invention 
 
 A curious devotional cut is inserted in the Faques 
 Psalter of 1 504 in the British Museum, containing the 
 emblems of the Passion and a large I. H. S. At the 
 base of the cut are the initials d. h. b., perhaps refer- 
 ring to the place where the cut was issued. Most of 
 these cuts were doubtless produced in monasteries or 
 religious houses to give or sell to visitors, who very 
 often inserted them in their own private books of 
 devotion, and in this manner many have been pre- 
 served. The Lambeth copy of the Wynkyn de Worde 
 Sarum HorcB of 1494 shows signs of having con- 
 tained eighteen of such pictures, though only three 
 are now left. 
 
 After the single leaf prints we come to the block- 
 books, which we may look upon in some ways as the 
 precursors of printed books. 
 
 ' A block-book is a book printed wholly from carved 
 blocks of wood. Such volumes usually consist of 
 pictorial matter only ; if any text is added in illustra- 
 tion, it likewise is carved upon the wood-block, and 
 not put together with movable types. The whole of 
 any one page, sometimes the whole of two pages, is 
 printed from a single block of wood. The manner in 
 which the printing was done is peculiar. The block 
 was first thoroughly wetted with a thin watery ink, 
 then a sheet of damp paper was laid upon it, and the 
 back of the paper was carefully rubbed with some 
 kind of dabber or burnisher, till an impression from 
 the ridges of the carved block had been transferred to 
 the paper. Of course in this fashion a sheet could
 
 8 Early Printed Books 
 
 only be printed on one side; the only block-book 
 which does not possess this characteristic is the 
 Legend of St. Servatius in the Royal Library of 
 Brussels, and that is an exceptional volume in many 
 respects besides.' 1 These block-books must be con- 
 sidered as forming a distinct group of themselves, 
 radically different from other books, though undoubt- 
 edly they gave the idea to the inventor of movable 
 type. They continued to be made during the whole 
 of the fifteenth century, almost always on the same 
 plan, and each one as archaic looking as another. 
 The invention of movable type did not do away with 
 the demand, and the supply was kept up. 
 
 Unfortunately we have no data for determining the 
 exact period at which these books were made; and it 
 is curious to note that all the editions which are dated 
 have a late date, the majority being between 1470 and 
 1480, and none being earlier than the first date, with 
 the exception of the Brussels block-book, which is 
 dated 1440. 
 
 The number of different block-books in existence is 
 hard to estimate, but it must approach somewhere 
 near one hundred. Many of these are of little import- 
 ance, many others of too late a date to be of much 
 interest. 
 
 The best known of the earlier block-books are the 
 A rs Moriendi, the Biblia Pauperum, the Apocalypse, and 
 the Canticum Canticorum. Of these, the first and third 
 are probably German, the second and fourth Dutch. 
 
 1 Con way's Woodcutters of the Netherlands. Cambridge, 1884. 8vo.
 
 Steps towards the Invention 
 
 Of all these books there are a number of editions, 
 not easily distinguishable apart, and which it is difficult 
 to place in chronological order. These editions are 
 hardly editions in the modern sense of the term. 
 They were not produced by a printer who used one 
 set of blocks till they were worn out, and then cut 
 another. The woodcutter was the only tradesman, 
 and he sold, not the books, but the blocks. He cut 
 set after set of blocks to print the few books then in 
 demand, and these were sold to private purchasers. 
 We find wealthy people or heads of religious establish- 
 ments in possession of such sets. In the inventory of 
 Jean de Hinsberg, Bishop of Liege, 1419-1455, are 
 noticed 
 
 ' Unum instrumentum ad imprimendas scripturas et ymagines 
 ' Novem printe lignee ad imprimendas ymagines cum quatuordecim 
 aliis lapideis printis.' 
 
 Thus, these editions do not necessarily follow one 
 another ; some may have been produced side by side 
 by different cutters, others within the interval of a 
 few months, but by the same man. Their date is 
 another difficult point. The copies of the Biblia 
 Pauperum, Apocalypse, and Ars Moriendi, which 
 belonged to Mr. Horn, were in their original binding, 
 and it was stamped with a date. The books were 
 separated and the binding destroyed. Mr. Horn 
 asserted from memory that the first three figures 
 of the date were certainly 142, and the last probably 
 an 8. Mr. Conway very justly points out that the 
 resemblance of a 5 of that date to our 2 was very
 
 io Early Printed Books 
 
 strong, and that Mr. Horn's memory may have 
 deceived him. 
 
 It will be noticed in examining block-books gener- 
 ally, that the letterpress in the majority of the later 
 examples is cut in imitation of handwriting, and not 
 of the square church hand from which printing types 
 and the letterpress of the earlier block-books were 
 copied. The reason of this probably is, that it was 
 found useless to try to compete with the books printed 
 from movable type in regularity and neatness. To 
 do so would have involved a much greater expendi- 
 ture of trouble by the woodcutter and designer. The 
 illustrations were the important part of the book, and 
 the letterpress was put in with as little trouble as 
 possible. 
 
 The sheets on which the early block-books were 
 printed were not quired, i.e. placed one inside the 
 other to form a quire or gathering, as was done in 
 ordinary printed books, but followed each other singly. 
 In many of the books we find signatures, each sheet 
 being signed with a letter of the alphabet as a guide 
 to the binder in arranging them. 
 
 Among the dated block-books may be mentioned 
 an edition of the Endkrist, dated 1472, produced at 
 Nuremberg; an edition of the Ars Moriendi cut by 
 Hans Sporer in 1473 > a d another of about the same 
 period cut by Ludwig zu Ulm. Of the Biblia 
 Pauperum there are three dated editions known, one 
 of 1470 and two of 1471. A copy of the De genera- 
 tione Christi has the following full colophon:
 
 IMfiVM
 
 Steps towards the Invention 1 1 
 
 'Johannes Eysenhut impressor, anno ab incarnationis 
 dominice M quadringentesimo septuagesimo i.' 
 Hans Sporer of Nuremberg produced an edition of 
 the Biblia Pauperum in 1475, and Chatto speaks of 
 another of the same year without a name, but con- 
 taining as a mark a shield with a spur upon it, which 
 he supposes to stand for the name Sporer. Many of 
 these later books were not printed in distemper on 
 one side of the paper only, but on both sides and in 
 printer's ink, showing that the use of the printing 
 press was known to those who produced them. 
 
 Among the late block-books should be noticed the 
 Mirabilia Roma [Hain 1 1,208] ; for why it should have 
 been printed as a block-book is a mystery. It con- 
 sists of 184 pages of text, with only two illustrations, 
 printed on both sides of the page, and evidently of 
 late date. The letterpress is not cut in imitation of 
 type, but of ordinary handwriting, and the book may 
 have been made to sell to those who were not 
 accustomed to the type of printed books. The arms 
 of the Pope which occur in the book are those of 
 Sixtus IV., who occupied the papal chair from 1471 
 to 1484, so that the book may be considered to have 
 been produced within those two dates, probably nearer 
 the latter. The accompanying facsimile is taken from 
 the first page of text. 
 
 The best known of the block-books, and the one 
 which has the most important place in the history 
 of printing, is the Speculum Humance Salvationis. 
 While it is called a block-book, it has many differ-
 
 1 2 Early Printed Books 
 
 ences from those we have previously spoken of, and 
 occupies a position midway between them and the 
 ordinary printed book. 
 
 The earliest block-books were printed page by page, 
 and the sheets were bound up one after the other ; but 
 the Speculum is arranged in quires, though still only 
 printed on one side of the page. In it, too, the text 
 is, as a rule, printed from movable type, except in the 
 case of one edition, where some pages are entirely 
 xylographic. There are four editions known, printed, 
 according to the best authorities, in the following 
 order : 
 
 1. Latin, printed with one fount. [Hessels, 2.] 
 
 2. Dutch, printed with two founts. [Hessels, 3.] 
 
 3. Latin, with twenty leaves printed xylographic- 
 ally. [Hessels, I.] 
 
 4. Dutch, with one fount. [Hessels, 4.] 
 
 In all these four books the same cuts are used, and 
 the type with which they were printed was used in 
 other books. 
 
 Edition I contains sixty-four leaves, made up by 
 one gathering of six leaves, three of fourteen, and one 
 of sixteen ; the text is throughout printed from 
 movable type. In two copies, those in the Meerman- 
 Westreenen Museum at the Hague, and the Pitti 
 Palace at Florence, are to be found cancels of portions 
 of some leaves. Either the text or the illustration 
 has been defectively printed ; in each case the defect- 
 ive part has been supplied by another copy pasted on. 
 
 Edition 2 contains sixty- two leaves, made up in
 
 Steps towards the Invention \ 3 
 
 the same way as the first edition, but having only 
 four leaves in the first gathering. Two leaves in this 
 edition are printed in a different type from the rest of 
 the book. 
 
 Edition 3 contains the same number of leaves, and 
 is made up in the same way as edition i. It is 
 remarkable for having twenty leaves printed entirely 
 from blocks, text as well as illustrations. 
 
 Edition 4 is made up in the same way as edition 2. 
 The copy in the library at Lille contains some leaves 
 with text printed upon both sides, seemingly by an 
 error of the printer. The very fact of their existence 
 shows that it was possible to print the text on both 
 sides of the leaf. There must therefore have been 
 some reason other than the ignorance or incapacity of 
 the printer for printing these books on one side only, 
 or, as it is called, anopisthographically. 
 
 There can be very little doubt that Mr. Sotheby is 
 correct in his conjecture, that ' the then usual process 
 of taking off the wood engravings by friction, ren- 
 dered it impossible to effect two impressions back to 
 back, as the friction for the second would materially 
 injure the first. On this account, and on no other, 
 we presume, was the text printed only on one side.' 
 In the Lille copy above mentioned, two leaves, 25 
 and 26 (the centre sheet of the third quire), contain 
 printed on their other side the text, not the illustra- 
 tions, of leaves 47 and 62 (the first sheet of the fifth 
 quire. 
 
 From this we learn three things of great import-
 
 1 4 Early Printed Books 
 
 ance I. That the text and the cut were not printed 
 at the same time, and that the text was printed first. 
 2. That the printer could print the text, for which he 
 used movable type, on both sides of the paper. 3. 
 That the book was printed, not page by page, but two 
 pages at a time. 
 
 Mr. Ottley was strongly of opinion, after careful 
 examination, that the book was certainly printed two 
 pages at a time. He says, ' The proofs of this are, I 
 think, conclusive. The upper lines of the text in 
 those two pages always range exactly with each 
 other. . . . Here and there, in turning over the book, 
 we observe a page printed awry or diagonally on the 
 paper ; in such case, if the other page of the same 
 sheet be examined, the same defect will be noticed. 
 Upon opening the two Dutch copies of the edition, 
 which I shall hereafter show to be the fourth at 
 Harlem, in the middle sheet of the same gathering we 
 find, upon comparing them, the exact same breadth 
 and regularity of the inner margin in both, and the 
 lines of the two pages range with each other exactly 
 the same in both copies, which could not be the case 
 had each page been printed separately.' 
 
 Where and when was this book printed ? Con- 
 jectural dates have been given to it ranging from 
 1410 to 1470. The earliest date that can be abso- 
 lutely connected with it is 1471-73. Certainly there 
 is nothing in its printing which would point to its 
 having been executed earlier than 1470. Its being 
 printed only on the one side of the leaf was a matter of
 
 Steps towards the Invention 1 5 
 
 necessity on account of the cuts, and is not a sign of 
 remote age, while the printing of two pages at a time 
 argues an advance of knowledge in the printer, and 
 consequently a later date. About 1480-81 the blocks 
 which had been used for the four editions of the 
 Speculum passed into the hands of John Veldener. 
 This Veldener printed in Louvain between 1475 and 
 1477, and he was not then in possession of the blocks. 
 'At the end of 1478 he began work at Utrecht, still, 
 however, without this set of blocks. For his second 
 edition of the Fasciculus temporum, published I4th 
 February 1480, he had a few new blocks made, some 
 of which were copied from Speculum cuts. At last, 
 on the iQth April 1481, he published an Epistles and 
 Gospels in Dutch, and into that he introduced two 
 cut-up portions of the real old Speculum blocks. 
 This was the last book Veldener is known to have 
 printed at Utrecht. For two years we hear nothing 
 more of him, and then he reappears at Kuilenburg, 
 whither he removed his presses. There, on the 
 27th September 1483, he printed a quarto edition 
 of the Speculum in Dutch. For it he cut up all 
 the original blocks into their separate compartments, 
 and thus suited them to fit into the upper portion 
 of a quarto page. He had, moreover, twelve new 
 cuts made in imitation of these severed portions of 
 the old set, and he printed them along with the 
 rest. Once more, in 1484 he employed a couple 
 of the old set in the Dutch Herbarius, which was 
 the last book known to have been issued by him
 
 1 6 Early Printed Books 
 
 at Kuilenburg. Thenceforward the Speculum cuts 
 appear no more.' 1 
 
 The only place, then, with which the Speculum 
 blocks are definitely connected is Utrecht, and there 
 they must be left until some further evidence is forth- 
 coming respecting their origin ; nor have we any 
 substantial reason for believing that when they passed 
 into the possession of Veldener they had been in 
 existence for more than ten or twelve years. 
 
 Some among the late block-books are of interest 
 as having been produced by men who were at the 
 same time printers in the ordinary sense of the word. 
 There is part of a Donatus in the Bodleian, with 
 a colophon stating it to be the work of Conrad 
 Dinckmut, a printer at Ulm from 1482 to 1496. In 
 the British Museum is a German almanac of about 
 1490 produced by Conrad Kacheloffen, who printed a 
 number of books, many with illustrations, at Leipzig. 
 For a book so small as the Donatus, a book which 
 was always in demand, it would be almost as economi- 
 cal to cut blocks as to keep type standing, and we 
 consequently find a number of such xylographic 
 editions produced at the very end of the fifteenth 
 century. In the Bibliotheque Nationale are two 
 original blocks, bought by Foucault, the minister of 
 Louis XIV., in Germany, and probably cut about 
 1500 or shortly before. The letters are cut in exact 
 imitation of type, and with such regularity that a 
 print from the block might almost pass for a print 
 
 1 Conway's Woodcutters, p. 13.
 
 Steps towards the Invention 1 7 
 
 from ordinary type, did not the bases and tops of a 
 few letters overlap. 
 
 The latest block-book of any size was printed at 
 Venice. It is the Figure del Testamento Vecckio, 
 printed about 1510 by Giovanni Andrea Vavassore. 
 
 In the library at Lambeth Palace are two curious 
 block-printed leaves of early English work. Each 
 leaf contains an indulgence printed four times, con- 
 sisting of a figure of Saint Cornelius and five lines of 
 text. 'The hole indulgence of pardon granted to 
 blessed S. Cornelis is vi score years, vi score lentes, 
 ii M ix C and xx dais of pardon for evermore to 
 endure.' 
 
 It shows us very clearly the cheapness with which 
 such work could be produced ; for, in order to save the 
 time which would be occupied in taking impressions 
 singly from one block, two blocks have been used 
 almost exactly the same, so that two impressions 
 could be taken off at once. This was usually done in 
 printing indulgences from movable type, for there 
 the trouble of setting up twice was very small com- 
 pared to the gain in the time and labour which 
 resulted from it. 
 
 There still remains to be noticed the one specimen 
 of xylography produced in France. This is known 
 as Les Neuf Preux. It consists of three sheets of 
 paper, each of which contains an impression from a 
 block containing three figures. They are printed by 
 means of the frotton in light-coloured ink, and have 
 been coloured by hand. The first sheet contains 
 
 B
 
 1 8 Early Printed Books 
 
 pictures of the three champions of classical times, 
 Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar ; the second, 
 the three champions of the Old Testament, Joshua, 
 David, and Judas Maccabaeus ; the third, the three 
 champions of mediaeval history, Arthur, Charlemagne, 
 and Godfrey of Boulogne. Under each picture is a 
 stanza of six lines, all rhyming, cut in a bold type. 
 
 These leaves form part of the Armorial vl Gilles le 
 Bouvier, who was King-at-Arms to Charles VII. of 
 France ; and as the manuscript was finished between 
 9th November 1454 and 22nd September 1457, it is 
 reasonable to suppose that the prints were executed 
 in France, probably at Paris, before the latter date. 
 The verses are, at any rate, the oldest printed speci- 
 men of the French language. 
 
 When we consider that printing of a rudimentary 
 kind had existed for so many centuries, and that 
 during the whole of the early part of the fifteenth 
 century examples with words or even whole lines of 
 inscription were being produced, we can only wonder 
 that the discovery of printing from movable types 
 should have been made so late. It has been said 
 inventions will always be made when the need for 
 them has arisen, and this is the real reason, perhaps, 
 why the discovery of printing was delayed. The 
 intellectual requirements of the mediaeval world were 
 not greater than could be satisfactorily supplied by 
 the scribe and illuminator, but with the revival of 
 letters came an absolute need for the more rapid 
 multiplication of the instruments of learning. We
 
 Steps towards the Invention 19 
 
 may even say that the intellectual activity of the 
 fifteenth century not only called printing into exist- 
 ence, but furnished it with its noblest models. The 
 scholarly scribes of Italy at that epoch had revived 
 the Caroline minuscules as used in the eleventh and 
 twelfth centuries, and it was this beautiful hand 
 which the early Italian printers imitated, thereby 
 giving us the 'Roman' type in which our books are 
 still printed. 
 
 I cannot more fitly close this preliminary chapter 
 than by quoting from the MS. note-books of Henry 
 Bradshaw the opening sentences of his article ' Typo- 
 graphy' for the Encyclopedia Britannica, an article 
 which unfortunately was never completed. 
 
 'Typography was, in the eyes of those who first 
 used it, the art of multiplying books, of writing by 
 means of single types capable of being used again 
 and again, instead of with a pen, which, of course, 
 could only produce one book at a time. 1 
 
 'The art of multiplying single sheets, for which 
 woodcut blocks could be used to serve a temporary 
 purpose, may be looked upon as an intermediate 
 stage, which may have given the idea of typography. 
 When the reproduction of books had long passed 
 out of the exclusive hands of the monasteries into the 
 hands of students or hangers-on of the universities, 
 any invention of this kind would be readily and 
 
 1 This is clearly brought before us by the words of the first printers 
 at Avignon, ' ars artificialiter scribendi,' a phrase used several times 
 over in speaking of their new invention.
 
 2O Early Printed Books 
 
 rapidly taken up. When there was no Greek press 
 in Paris, we find Georgius Hermonymus making a 
 living by constant copying of Greek books for the 
 scholars who were so eager for them. So Reuchlin 
 in the same way supported himself by copying. 
 
 ' In fact, the two departments of compositor and 
 corrector in the printing office were the direct repre- 
 sentatives and successors of the scribe and corrector 
 of manuscripts from the early times. The kind of 
 men whom we find mentioned in the early printing 
 offices as correctors, are just such men as would be 
 sought for in earlier times in an important scrip- 
 torium. In our modern world, printed and written 
 books have come to be looked upon as totally distinct 
 things, whereas it is impossible to bring before our 
 minds the state of things when books were first 
 printed, until we look upon them as precisely the 
 same. They were brought to fairs, or such general 
 centres of circulation as Paris, Leipzig, or Frankfort, 
 before the days of printing, just as afterwards, only 
 that printing enabled the stationer to supply his 
 buyers with much greater rapidity than before, and at 
 much cheaper rates ; so that the laws of supjply and 
 demand work together in such a manner that it is 
 difficult to say which had more influence in accelerat- 
 ing the movement.'
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. 
 
 THE earliest specimen of printing from movable 
 type known to exist was printed at Mainz in 1454. 
 In making this statement, I do not wish to pass over 
 the claims of France and the Low Countries to the 
 invention of printing, but only to point out that, in 
 considering the question, we must put the evidence 
 of the printed books themselves first, and then work 
 from these to such documentary evidence as we 
 possess. France has the documents but no books ; 
 the Low Countries neither the one nor the other ; and 
 therefore, if we are to set about our inquiries on any 
 rational plan, we must date the invention of printing 
 from the date of its first product. This is the famous 
 Indulgence of Nicholas V. to such as should contri- 
 bute money to aid the King of Cyprus against the 
 Turks. 
 
 In the copy of the Indulgence now preserved in the 
 Meerman-Westreenen Museum at the Hague (dis- 
 covered by Albert Frick at Ulm in 1762, and after- 
 wards in the collections of Schelhorn and Meerman), 
 the place of issue, Erfurth, and the date, November 
 
 15, have been filled in ; thus giving us as the earliest 
 
 21
 
 22 Early Printed Books 
 
 authentic date on a printed document, November 15, 
 
 I454- 
 
 In the years 1454 and 1455 there was a large 
 demand for these Indulgences, and seven editions were 
 issued. These may be divided into two sets, the one 
 containing thirty-one lines, the other thirty lines ; the 
 first dated example belonging to the former. 
 
 These two sets are unmistakably the work of two 
 different printers, one of whom may well have been 
 Peter Schceffer, since we find the initial letters which 
 are used in the thirty-line editions used again in an 
 Indulgence of 1489 certainly printed by him. Who, 
 then, was the printer of the other set ? He is gener- 
 ally stated to have been John Gutenberg ; and though 
 we have no proof of this, or indeed of Gutenberg's 
 having printed any book at all, there is a strong 
 weight of circumstantial evidence in his favour. 
 
 What do we know about John Gutenberg, the 
 presumed printer of the first dated specimen of 
 printing ? The earliest information comes from the 
 record of a lawsuit brought against him at Strasburg 
 in 1439 by George Dritzehn, for money advanced. 
 
 There is hardly room for doubt that the business 
 on which Gutenberg was engaged, and for which 
 money was advanced him, was printing. There is a 
 certain ambiguity about some of the expressions, 
 but the greater part of the account is too clear and 
 straightforward to allow of any doubt. 1 It may 
 
 1 A very careful literal and unabridged translation will be found in 
 Hessels' Gittenbcrg, pp. 34-57. The text used is Laborde's with some
 
 The Invention of Printing 23 
 
 safely be said that before 1439 Gutenberg was at 
 work at Strasburg, experimenting on and perfecting 
 the art of printing. 
 
 The next document which relates to him as a 
 printer is the lawsuit of 1455, the original transcript 
 of which was recently found at Gottingen. This was 
 brought against him by Fust to recover a loan of 800 
 guilders. In this lawsuit mention is made of two 
 of Gutenberg's servants, Heinrich Keffer, afterwards a 
 printer at Nuremberg, and Bertolf von Hanau, sup- 
 posed to be the same as Bertold Ruppel, the first 
 printer at Basle. Peter Schceffer also appears as a 
 witness. We learn from this suit that somewhere 
 about August 1450, Fust advanced the amount of 
 800 guilders, and about December 1452 a like 
 amount ; but these loans were advanced in the first 
 instance by Fust towards assisting a work of which 
 the method was understood, and we are therefore 
 justified in considering that by that time Gutenberg 
 had mastered the principles of the art of printing. 
 
 The first two books printed at Mainz were the 
 editions of the Vulgate, known from the number of 
 lines which go to the page as the forty-two line and 
 thirty-six line Bibles. The forty-two line edition is 
 generally called the Mazarine Bible, because the copy 
 which first attracted notice was found in Cardinal 
 
 corrections, and Schcepflin's readings when they vary are given in 
 notes. It should be noted that Mr. Hessels implies that the account of 
 this trial is a forgery, or at any rate unreliable ; but his negative and 
 partial reasoning cannot stand against the evidence brought forward by 
 many trustworthy authorities.
 
 24 Early Printed Books 
 
 Mazarin's library ; and the thirty-six line edition, 
 Pfister's or the Bamberg Bible, because the type used 
 in it was at one time in the possession of Albrecht 
 Pfister of Bamberg. On the question as to which of 
 the two editions is the earlier, there has been endless 
 controversy ; and before going farther, it will be as 
 well to state shortly the actual data which we possess 
 from which conclusions can be drawn. 
 
 The Paris copy of the forty-two line Bible has the 
 rubricator's inscription, which shows that the book 
 was finished before the i$th August 1456. 
 
 The only exact date we know of, connected with 
 the other Bible, is 1461, this date being written on a 
 copy of the last leaf, also preserved in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale at Paris. 
 
 The types of both Bibles were in existence in 1454, 
 for they were used in the thirty and thirty-one line 
 letters of Indulgence printed in that year. 
 
 The type of the forty-two line Bible is clearly a 
 product of the Gutenberg-Fust-Schceffer partnership, 
 for it is used afterwards by SchoefFer as Fust's partner, 
 and must therefore have been the property of Fust. 
 Mr. Hessels, who has worked out the history of the 
 types with extreme care and accuracy, says : ' I have 
 shown above that one of the initials of the thirty line 
 Indulgence is found in 1489 in Schceffer's office. The 
 church type of the same Indulgence links on (in spite 
 of the different capital P) to the anonymous forty-two 
 line Bible of 1456. This Bible links on to the thirty- 
 five line Donatus, which is in the same type, and has
 
 The Invention of Printing 25 
 
 Schceffer's name and his coloured capitals. 1 This 
 again brings us to the Psalter, which Joh. Fust 
 and Peter Schoeffer published together on the I4th 
 August 1457, at Mentz, their first (dated) book with 
 their name and the capitals of the Donatus? 
 
 We may safely say of the forty-two line Bible, that 
 it could not have been begun before about August 
 1450 (when Gutenberg entered into partnership with 
 Fust), and that it could not have been finished later 
 than August 1456 (the rubricated date of the Paris 
 copy). 
 
 As regards the thirty-six line Bible, M. Dziatzko 
 has brought forward, after much patient study, some 
 remarkable evidence. He proves, from an examina- 
 tion of the text, that the thirty-six line Bible was set 
 up, at any rate in part, from the forty-two line Bible. 
 One copy survives which betrays this ; for the com- 
 positor has passed from the last word of leaf 7 to the 
 first word of leaf 9. In another place he has misread 
 the beginning of a chapter, and included the last two 
 words of the one before, which is explained by the 
 arrangement of the text in the forty-two line edition. 
 
 Dziatzko concludes that this latter edition was the 
 product of the Gutenberg-Fust confederation, and 
 that Gutenberg may have produced the thirty-six line 
 Bible more or less pari passu, either alone or in 
 partnership with (perhaps) Pfister. An examination 
 
 1 The colophon of this book says : . . . ' per Petrum de Gernssheym 
 in urbe Moguntina cum suis capitalibus absque calami exaratione 
 effigiatus ; ' and Mr. Hessels translates ' cum suis capitalibus,' ' with 
 his capital letters,' a rendering which is surely impossible.
 
 26 Early Printed Books 
 
 of the paper used in printing the two books points 
 to the conclusion that there were substantial means 
 available for the production of the forty-two line 
 Bible, while the thirty-six line seems to show many 
 separate purchases of small amounts of different 
 papers. 
 
 It is impossible 'to assign any date for the com- 
 mencement of the thirty-six line Bible. Fust had 
 clearly nothing to do with it, and the type may have 
 been made and some sheets printed before the 
 partnership for printing the forty-two line Bible was 
 entered into in 1450. The largeness of the type and 
 consequent lesser number of lines to the page points 
 to an early date, for the tendency was always 
 to increase the number of lines to the page and 
 economise paper. Thus we find that when the first 
 gathering of the forty-two line Bible had been 
 printed, which has only forty lines to the page, the 
 type was recast, so as to have the same face of letter 
 on a smaller body ; and with this type the page was 
 made to contain forty-two lines to the page. 
 
 The workmanship and the appearance of the type 
 would also lead us to suppose that the thirty-six line 
 Bible was printed earlier than the Manung widder 
 die Durcke, which, being an ephemeral publication 
 applicable only to the year 1455, must presumably 
 have been printed in 1454. 
 
 We can therefore probably put both Bibles earlier 
 than 1454. 
 
 The first book with a printed date is the well-
 
 The Invention of Printing 2 7 
 
 known Psalmorum Codex of 1457, printed by 
 Schoeffer. Of this book nine copies are known, 
 and all vary slightly from each other. 1 Only two 
 types are used throughout the Psalter, but both are 
 very large. Mr. Weale, on account of the variations 
 observable in the letters, insists that the book was 
 printed from cut and not cast type ; but he gives no 
 reason for this opinion ; and when we consider that 
 books had already been produced from cast type, it is 
 impossible to understand why Schceffer should have 
 resorted to so laborious a method. The dissimilarity 
 of some letters is not so strong a proof of their having 
 been cut, as the similarity of the greater number is of 
 their having been cast. Bradshaw, who was of this 
 opinion, had also noted some curious shrinkages in 
 the type, resulting from the way the matrices for the 
 type were formed. 
 
 The most striking thing about the Psalter are 
 the wonderful capital letters ; and how these were 
 printed has always been a vexed question. In the 
 editions of 1457 and 1459 they are in two colours, 
 the letter in one colour and the surrounding orna- 
 mentation in another. Though it is impossible to 
 determine exactly how they were produced, there is 
 at any rate something to be settled on the question. 
 In one case, in the edition of 1515, in which these 
 initials were still used, the exterior ornament has 
 
 1 For a very full account of this book see the Catalogue of MSS. 
 and Printed Books exhibited at the Historical Music Loan Exhibition, 
 by W. II. James Weale, London, 1886, 8vo, pp. 27-45.
 
 28 Early Printed Books 
 
 been printed, but the letter itself and the interior 
 ornament have not. This shows at any rate that the 
 letter and the ornament were not on one block, and 
 that the exterior and interior ornaments were on 
 different blocks ; and is also in favour of the sugges- 
 tion put forward by Fischer, that the ornament and 
 the letter, though on different blocks, were not 
 printed at the same time. In support of his theory, 
 Fischer mentioned a case of the letter overlapping 
 the ornament in a copy of the edition of 1459, and 
 such a slip could not have occurred had the letter 
 and ornament been printed from inset blocks in the 
 method now known as the Congreve process. 
 
 It has also been argued by some writers, among 
 whom is William Blades, that the letter was not 
 printed in colour, but that the design was merely 
 impressed in blank upon the paper or vellum, and 
 afterwards filled in with colour by the illuminator. 
 This is shown, it is said, by some portions of lines 
 here and there in the ornamentation remaining 
 uncoloured, a result surely due to imperfect inking 
 rather than to a careless illuminator. It is hardly 
 probable that the rubricator would begin a line and 
 leave the end uncoloured while it was plainly traced 
 for him ; but, on the other hand, it is just such a fault 
 as would, and often did, occur in printing an elaborate 
 and involved ornament. No doubt in some cases the 
 capitals, like the letters of the text, were touched up 
 by the rubricator ; and this is, as a rule, most noticeable 
 when the ornament or letter is in blue. The blue
 
 The Invention of Printing 29 
 
 ink used had a green tinge, and in some cases looked 
 almost grey, and was therefore very often touched up 
 with a brighter colour. Mr. Weale is of opinion 
 that these letters were not set up and printed with 
 the rest of the book, but were ' printed, subsequently 
 to the typography, not by a pull of the press, but by 
 the blow of a mallet on the superimposed block.' 
 
 It was probably about 1458, between the times of 
 printing the two editions of the Psalter, that Schoeffer 
 printed the book called in his catalogue of 1469-70, 
 Canon misse cum prefacionibus et imparatoriis suis. 
 This was the Canon of the Mass, printed by itself for 
 inserting in copies of the Missal. This particular 
 part, being the most used, was often worn out 
 before the rest of the book; and we know from early 
 catalogues * that it was the custom of printers to 
 print this special part on vellum. While the printing 
 of a complete Missal would have been a doubtful 
 speculation, the printing of this one part, unvarying 
 in the different uses, required no great outlay, and 
 was almost certain to be profitable. Two copies only 
 are known, and these are of different editions. One 
 is in the Bodleian, and was bound up with an 
 imperfect copy of the Mainz Missal of 1493. The 
 other is in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg, 
 in a copy of the Breslau Missal of 1483. 
 
 The Bodleian copy consists of twelve leaves, 
 
 1 In a catalogue issued by Ratdolt about 1491 we read : . . . ' vide- 
 licet unum missarum (?) in papiro bene corporatum et illigatum cum 
 canone pergameneo non ultra tres florenos minus quarta : sed cum 
 canone papireo duos florenos cum dimidio fore comparandum.'
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 printed on vellum in the large type of the Psalter, 
 and ornamented with the same beautiful initials. 
 The capital T of the Te igitur, commencing the 
 Canon, is as large as the well-known B of the 
 Psalter, and even more beautiful in execution. 
 Besides the ordinary coloured capitals which occur 
 also in the Psalter, there is a monogram composed 
 of the letters V.D., standing for Vere dignum. 
 
 In 1459 a second edition of the Psalter was issued, 
 and also the Rationale Durandi, both containing 
 coloured capitals, though some copies of the latter 
 book are without the printed initials. A Donatus 
 without date, printed in the type of the forty-two line 
 Bible, has also the coloured capitals, and may be 
 dated before 1460. After that time we only find 
 these letters in use for the editions of the Psalter 
 which appeared in 1490, 1502, 1515, 1516; and for a 
 Donatus in the 1462 Bible type. Their size and the 
 trouble of printing them account, no doubt, for their 
 disuse. 
 
 In June 1460, Schoeffer issued the Constitutions of 
 Clement V., a large folio remarkable for the care 
 with which it was printed, and for the clever way in 
 which the commentary was worked round the text. 
 In 1462 appeared the first dated Bible, which is at 
 the same time the first book clearly divided into two 
 volumes. 1 In the next few years we have a number 
 
 1 It has never, I think, been noticed in print that some of the 
 capital letters in certain sheets of this Bible are not the work of the 
 rubricator, but are printed. Attempts were made to print both the 
 blue and the red on the same page, but it apparently was found too
 
 aratv Tnfbrcnptoe Hbroo m J g 
 di btligctta a>irectod>ae in b.mot Ira mogunne 
 tntpfToe-bn otttmatof* wmarab iocu babicaao -. 
 niamfrafcnpal 
 
 prnno pulcram bibham hi pergameno, 
 "Jtent fc^im fcoe fccan tbome ic aqwno. 
 *)tctn quartu fcrtpd etufdc. 
 r]tt tracijtu cmfd te eccie facfid a aracfis fidci. 
 *] Augufbnu &r todrina xpuna- cum tabula 
 notabiH pdkanbh> multu^ficua. 
 
 "jte mgrm iobatie gvrion ic cufK>dia (fngiic. 
 1 aunatonu txmocace ofcfr wticrabihs fom-j 
 iobam'o m'drr fjeretbeol agic ^fvfToa^ cm i j. 
 Iccttacbitu etufde 2r otrachb? mcrcutou . 
 "joe bull* J^n^v- fc)5t comnatburcos. 
 'Ijtc bidona Cepfcnracoe bratv mane ^gi 
 "]cc canonc mif 
 
 anapbonis m ma 
 
 Ire loh nnnc ianucnfcmin catbdtcpn , 
 ftc fcjtuin&pirTcr.iUil 6t detncttna cutn afparafu 
 lobamn&andrec. 
 ~]rc in ture amii. Irtllrflicon^G. 
 "jte arbcocs br ofanamtaceq affimtatr. 
 *]tv tibrofi oiUti ie omrt^ -Cu cuifd'C panabmg. 
 ^tc bif>ctna grifritij^.ic matia odanftaiftiien^' 
 'jtrni biftanani t fonartfi arrtini rctocitio br a - 
 Cancrfdi filie figifmud* m >wfoirdum. 
 
 SCHOEFFER'S CATALOGUE.
 
 The Invention of Printing 31 
 
 of Bulls and other such ephemeral publications, 
 relating mostly to the quarrels which were going on 
 in Mainz ; but in 1465, Schceffer starts again to 
 produce larger books, and in this year we have the 
 Decretals of Boniface VIII. and the De Officiis of 
 Cicero. This latter book is important as being the 
 first containing Greek type, that is, if it is allowed 
 to be earlier than the Lactantius of the same year 
 printed at Subiaco. In 1466 it was reprinted. 
 
 In or about 1469, Schceffer printed a most interest- 
 ing document, a catalogue of books for sale by 
 himself or his agent It is printed on one side of 
 a sheet, and was meant to be fixed up as an 
 advertisement in the different towns visited, the 
 name of the place where the books could be obtained 
 being written at the bottom. There are altogether 
 twenty-one books advertised, three of which were 
 not printed by Schoeffer, but probably by Gutenberg ; 
 and there are also in the list three unknown books. 
 Nearly all the important works from the press are in 
 it, the 1462 Bible on vellum, the Psalter of 1459, the 
 Decretals, the Cicero, and others. At the foot of the 
 list is printed in the large Psalter type, ' Hec est 
 littera psalterii,' so that the sheet is the earliest 
 known type-specimen as well as catalogue. 
 
 laborious, and was given up. The red letters were printed in colour ; 
 the letters which were to be blue were impressed in blank, and 
 afterwards filled up in colour by the illuminator. He did not always 
 follow the impressed letter, so that its outline can be clearly seen. 
 Some copies of this Bible have Schceffer's mark, and a date at the end 
 of the first volume ; others are without them. The colophons also 
 vary.
 
 32 Early Printed Books 
 
 The three books which are unknown, at any rate 
 as having been printed by Schceffer, are the Consola- 
 torium timorate conscientie and the De contractibus 
 mercatorum, both by Johann Nider, a famous 
 Dominican, and the Historia Griseldis of Petrarch. 
 
 In 1470, Schceffer put out another advertisement 
 relating to his edition of the Letters of St. Jerome, 
 printed in that year. Of this broadside two copies 
 are known, one in the Munich Library, the other, 
 formerly belonging to M. Weigel, in the British 
 Museum. From 1470 to 1479, Schceffer printed a 
 large number of books. Hain mentions twenty- 
 seven, almost all of which he himself had collated. 
 This was the busiest time in Schceffer's career, 
 and he carried on business in several towns. His 
 agent in Paris, Hermann de Stalhcen, died about 
 1474, and the books in his possession were dispersed. 
 On the complaint of Schceffer, Louis XI. allowed 
 him 2425 crowns as compensation, a sum which 
 shows that the stock of books must have been very 
 large. In 1479 he was received as a citizen of 
 Frankfort -on -the -Maine on payment of a certain 
 sum, no doubt in order that he might there sell his 
 books. At Mainz he became an important citizen, 
 and was made a judge. 
 
 From 1457 to 1468, Schceffer had used only four 
 types, the two church types which appear in the 
 Psalter, and the two book types which appear in the 
 Durandus. In this year he obtained a fifth type, 
 like the smaller one of the Durandus, and about the
 
 The Invention of Printing 33 
 
 same in body, but with a larger face. In 1484 and 
 
 1485 two new types appear, one a church type very 
 much resembling that used in the forty-two line 
 Bible, but with a larger face ; the other, a vernacular 
 type, which occurs first in the Hortus Sanitatis of 
 1485, a book containing SchoefFer's mark though 
 not his name, and appears the year following in the 
 Breydenbach, printed at Mainz by Erhard Reiiwick. 
 Reiiwick was an engraver, and the frontispiece to the 
 Hortus Sanitatis is perhaps from his hand, showing, 
 if it be so, a connection between him and Schceffer, 
 which his use of the latter's type tends to confirm. 
 In fact, it seems most probable that the text of the 
 two editions of the Breydenbach^ the Latin one of 
 
 1486 and the German one of 1488, was really printed 
 by Schceffer, while Reiiwick engraved the wonder- 
 ful illustrations. The title-page of this book is an 
 exquisite piece of work, and by far the finest example 
 of wood engraving which had appeared. It is further 
 noticeable as containing cross-hatching, which is 
 usually said to have first been used in the poor cuts 
 of that very much overpraised book, the Nuremberg 
 Chronicle of 1493. It contains also a number of 
 views of remarkable places, printed as folded plates. 
 Some of these views are as much as five feet long, and 
 were printed from several blocks on separate pieces 
 of paper, which were afterwards pasted together. 
 
 Schcefier continued to print during the whole of 
 the fifteenth century, though towards the end he 
 issued few books. Another printer, Petrus de Fried- 
 
 c
 
 34 Early Printed Books 
 
 berg, started to print at Mainz in 1493, and between 
 that time and 1498 issued a fair number of books. 
 About 1480 a group of six or seven books, all un- 
 dated, were printed at Mainz, which were long sup- 
 posed to be very early, and not impossibly printed 
 by Gutenberg. One of these was a Prognostication, 
 said to be for the year 1460, and therefore presumably 
 printed in 1459. A copy is preserved in the library 
 of Darmstadt ; and some years ago this was examined 
 by Mr. Hessels, who found that the date had been 
 tampered with, and that it should really read 1482. 
 
 From 1455 onwards, while the press of SchoefTer 
 was busily at work, we lose sight of Gutenberg. 
 Three books, however, all printed about 1460 at 
 Mainz, are ascribed to him. These are the Catholicon 
 (a kind of dictionary) of 1460, the Tractatus racionis et 
 conscientice of Matthaeus de Cracovia, and the Summa 
 de articulis fidei of Aquinas, both without date. To 
 these may be added a broadside indulgence printed 
 in 1461. Bernard attributes these books to the press 
 of Henry Bechtermuntze, who afterwards printed with 
 the same type at Eltvil. One fact appears to tell 
 strongly against this conclusion. In 1469-70, when 
 Schceffer issued his catalogue, we find these three 
 books in it, the remainder being all of Schceffer's 
 own production. How did they get into Schceffer's 
 hands? Had they been printed by Bechtermuntze 
 we should surely find the Vocabularitts ex quo also 
 in the catalogue, for he had issued editions in 1467 
 and 1469. It is more probable that they had formed
 
 The Invention of Printing 35 
 
 the stock of a printer who had given up business, and 
 had therefore got rid of all the books remaining on 
 his hands. 1 
 
 In the copy of the Tractatus racionis belonging to 
 the Bibliotheque Nationale the following manuscript 
 note occurs : ' Hos duos sexternos accomidauit mihi 
 henrycus Keppfer de moguncia nunquam reuenit ut 
 reacciperetur,' etc. This Keppfer was one of Guten- 
 berg's workmen ; and his name occurs in the notarial 
 instrument of 1455, so that this inscription forms a 
 link between the book and Gutenberg. 
 
 We have, unfortunately, no direct evidence as to 
 the printer. We know that the books were printed 
 at Mainz, for it is directly so stated in the Schceffer 
 catalogue and in the colophon of the Catholicon. Now 
 we know of no printers at Mainz in 1460 except 
 Schceffer and Gutenberg, and Schceffer was certainly 
 not the printer of these books. On the other hand, 
 there are no books except these three that could have 
 been printed by Gutenberg ; and if these three are to 
 "be ascribed to any one else, Gutenberg is left in the 
 position of a known printer who printed nothing. It 
 has been shown above that it is very improbable that 
 the books were printed by Bechtermuntze ; and the 
 
 1 In 1468 all the materials connected with Gutenberg's press were 
 handed over to Conrad Homery, their owner, who binds himself to use 
 the type only in Mainz ; and also binds himself, if he sells it, to sell it 
 to a citizen of Mainz, provided that citizen offers as much as a stranger. 
 The stock of printed books would also belong to Homery in his capacity 
 of creditor, and would be sold in Mainz, where, so far as we know, 
 there w as no one except Schoeffer to buy them.
 
 36 Early Printed Books 
 
 fact that in 1470 the remaining copies were in the 
 hands of a man who did not print them, points to 
 their real printer having died or given up business. 
 Though from these various facts we can prove nothing 
 as regards the identity of the printer, we have some 
 show of probability for imagining that he must have 
 been Gutenberg. 
 
 There is no doubt whatever that the Catholicon 
 type appears at Eltvil in the hands of the two 
 brothers Bechtermuntze in 1467, for in the Vocabu- 
 larius ex quo there is a clear colophon stating that 
 the book was commenced by Henry Bechtermuntze 
 and finished by Nicholas Bechtermuntze and Wygand 
 Spyess of Orthenberg on the 4th of November 1467. 
 
 There has been a great deal of argument on the 
 question how these types came into the hands of 
 the Eltvil printers while Gutenberg was alive. We 
 know that Gutenberg became a pensioner of Adolph 
 II. in 1465, and would therefore presumably give up 
 printing in that year. The types and printing 
 materials which he had been using belonged to a 
 certain Dr. Homery, and were reclaimed by him in 
 1468. The distance from Eltvil to Mainz is only 
 some five or six miles, and the Rhine afforded easy 
 means of communication between the two places, so 
 that the difficulty of the transference of type back- 
 wards and forwards seems, as a rule, very much 
 overstated. Although we have no evidence of print- 
 ing at Eltvil before 1467, still it will be best to give 
 an account of the press in this chapter, since it was
 
 The Invention of Printing 37 
 
 so intimately connected with the early press at 
 Mainz. 
 
 In 1467, on the 4th November, an edition of the 
 Vocabularius ex quo was published. The colophon 
 tells us that the book was begun by Henry Bechter- 
 muntze, and finished by his brother Nicholas in 
 partnership with a certain Wygand Speyss of 
 Orthenberg. A second edition was published in 
 June 1469 by Nicholas Bechtermuntze alone. Both 
 these editions are printed in the type used for the 
 Catholicon of 1460, but with a few additional abbrevia- 
 tions. In 1472 a third edition of the Vocabularius 
 ex quo was issued, in a type very similar to the 
 type of the thirty-one line Letters of Indulgence, but 
 slightly smaller; and an edition of the Summa de 
 articulis fidei of Aquinas [Hain, *I426] was issued 
 in the same type. In 1477 a fourth edition of the 
 Vocabularius ex quo was printed by Nicholas Bech- 
 termuntze ; the type is different from that used in 
 the other books, and is identical, as Mr. Hessels 
 tells us, with that used about the same time by Peter 
 Drach at Spire. 
 
 Before leaving Mainz, it will be as well to notice 
 the books printed by the Brothers of the Common 
 Life at Marienthal. This monastery was close to 
 Mainz on the opposite side of the river, and not far 
 from Eltvil. The earliest book is a Copia indulgenti- 
 arum per Adolphum archiepiscopum Moguntinum 
 concessarum, dated from Mainz in August 1468, and 
 presumably printed in the same year. In 1474 they
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 issued the Mainz Breviary, a book of great rarity, 
 and of which the copies vary ; in fact, of certain 
 portions there seem to have been several editions. 
 Their latest piece of printing with a date is a broad- 
 side indulgence of 1484, of which there is a copy at 
 Darmstadt Dr. F. Falk, in his article ' Die Presse zu 
 Marienthal im Rtieingau? mentions fourteen books as 
 printed at this press ; but he includes some printed in 
 a type which cannot with certainty be ascribed to 
 Marienthal. The Brothers seem to have used only 
 two types, both of which are found in the Breviary. 
 Both are very distinctive, especially the larger, which 
 is a very heavy solid Gothic letter, easily distinguish- 
 able by the curious lower case d.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SPREAD OF PRINTING IN GERMANY. 
 
 BEFORE 1462, when the sacking of Mainz by Adolf 
 von Nassau is popularly supposed to have dissemin- 
 ated the art of printing, presses were at work in at 
 least two other German towns, Strasburg and Bam- 
 berg. 
 
 The first of these places is mentioned by Trithemius, 
 who records that after the secret of printing was dis- 
 covered, it spread first to Strasburg. Judging merely 
 from authentic dates, this is evidently correct, for we 
 have the date 1460 for Strasburg, and 1461-62 for 
 Bamberg. There are, however, strong reasons for sup- 
 posing that this order is hardly the correct one, and 
 that Bamberg should come first. Since, however, the 
 statement and the dates exist, it will be safer for us 
 provisionally to consider Strasburg as the first, and 
 state later on the arguments in favour of Bamberg. 
 
 Though no dated book is known printed at Stras- 
 burg before 1471, in which year Eggestein printed the 
 Decretum Gratiani, and though Mentelin's first dated 
 book is of the year 1473, yet we know from the 
 rubrications of a copy of the Latin Bible in the 
 library at Freiburg, that that book was finished, the
 
 4O Early Printed Books 
 
 first volume before 1460, and the second before 1461. 
 Concerning the printer, John Mentelin, a good deal is 
 known. Born at Schelestadt, he became a scribe and 
 illuminator ; but, like many others, abandoned the 
 original business to become a printer. P. de Ligna- 
 mine in his Chronicle says that by 1458, Mentelin 
 had a press at Strasburg, and was printing, like 
 Gutenberg, three hundred sheets a day. By 1461 he 
 had finished printing the forty-nine line edition of the 
 Latin Bible. He died on the I2th December 1478, 
 leaving two daughters, one married to Adolf Rusch 
 d'Ingwiller, his successor ; the other, to Martin Schott, 
 another Strasburg printer. Very few of his books 
 are dated ; and as his types have not yet been syste- 
 matically studied, the books cannot be ranged in any 
 accurate order. 
 
 Taking the information in Lignamine's Chronicle as 
 exact, and we have no reason to doubt its accuracy, 
 we may take certain books in the type of the Bible 
 as the earliest of Mentelin's books. 1 Round 1466 
 we can group some other books, the Augustinus de 
 arte predicandi and the Homily on St. Matthew by 
 St. Chrysostom. A copy of the former book in the 
 British Museum is rubricated 1466 ; and of the latter 
 a copy in the Spencer Collection has the same year 
 
 1 In the University Library, Cambridge, is a very interesting copy of 
 the first volume of this Bible, bought at the Culemann sale. It con- 
 sists for the most part of proof-sheets, and variations from the ordinary 
 copies occur on almost every page. It is printed on small sheets of 
 paper in the manner of a broadside, the sheets being pasted together at 
 the inner margin.
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 41 
 
 added in manuscript. In Sir M. M. Sykes' sale was 
 a volume containing copies of these two books bound 
 together in contemporary binding. About 1470, Men- 
 telin issued a catalogue containing the titles of nine 
 books, including a Virgil, a Terence, and a Valerius 
 Maximus. Mentelin also printed the first edition of 
 the Bible in German, a folio of 406 leaves. Several 
 copies are known with the rubricated date of 1466 ; 
 and the same date is also found in a copy of the 
 Secunda secundcz of Aquinas. Many other of his 
 books contain manuscript dates, and show that they 
 are considerably earlier than is usually supposed. 
 
 Henry Eggestein, whose first dated book was 
 issued in 1471, was living in Strasburg as early as 
 1442, and probably began to print almost as soon as 
 Mentelin. The earliest date attributable to any of 
 his books is 1466, the date written by Bamler, at that 
 time an illuminator, in the copy of one of his forty- 
 five line editions of the Bible now in the library at 
 Wolfenbiittel. In 1471, Eggestein himself tells us 
 that he had printed a large number of books. A 
 little time before this he had issued a most glowing 
 advertisement of his Bible. He appeals to the good 
 man to come and see his wonderful edition, produced, 
 as the early printers were so fond of saying, not by 
 the pen, but by the wonderful art of printing. The 
 proofs had been read by the best scholars, and the 
 book printed in the best style. This Bible, which has 
 forty-five lines to the column, was finished by 1466, 
 for the copy now in the library at Munich was
 
 42 Early Printed Books 
 
 rubricated in that year. The only printed dates that 
 occur in Eggestein's books are 1471 and 1472. Hain 
 gives three books of the years 1474, 1475, an d I47& 
 as printed in his type, but these contain no printer's 
 name. 
 
 The most mysterious printer connected with the 
 history of the Strasburg press, is the printer who used 
 a peculiarly shaped capital R, and is therefore known 
 as the R printer. He seems to have been very 
 generally confounded with Mentelin till 1825, when 
 the sale catalogue of Dr. Kloss' books appeared. In 
 this sale there happened to be two copies of the 
 Speculum of Vincent de Beauvais, one the undoubted 
 Mentelin edition, the other by the R printer. The 
 writer of the note in the catalogue stated that, on 
 comparison, the types of the two editions, though very 
 like each other, were not the same. Since the type is 
 different, and the peculiar R has never yet been 
 found in any authentic book printed by Mentelin, we 
 may safely say that Mentelin was not the printer. 
 To whom, then, are the books to be ascribed ? Many 
 consider them the work of Adolf Rusch d'Ingvviiler. 
 M. Madden attributes them all to the Monastery of 
 Weidenbach at Cologne, in common with most of the 
 other books by unknown printers, and dates them 
 about 1470. Bradshaw, writing to Mr. Winter Jones 
 in 1870, says : ' In turning over a volume of fragments 
 yesterday, I found a Bull of Sixtus IV., dated 1478, 
 in the type of the famous " R " printer so often con- 
 founded with Mentelin. His books are commonly
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 43 
 
 put down to 1470 or earlier, and I believe no one 
 ever thought of putting his books so late as 1478.* 
 Yet this little piece is almost the only certain date 
 which is known in connection with this whole series 
 of books.' Complete sets of the Speculum of Vincent 
 de Beauvais are very often made up, partly from 
 Mentelin's and partly from the R printer's editions, 
 which points to their having been probably printed at 
 the same place and about the same time. The 
 earliest MS. date found in any of the books by the 
 R printer is 1464 ; for a note in the copy of the 
 Duranti Rationale divinorum Officiorum in the library 
 at Basle, states that the book was bought in that 
 year for the University. If this date is authentic, 
 it follows that Strasburg was the first place where 
 Roman type was used. 
 
 The next important printer at Strasburg is George 
 Husner, who began in 1476 and printed up till 1498. 
 His types may be recognised by the capital H, which 
 is Roman, and has a boss on the lower side of the 
 cross-bar. John Gruninger, who began in 1483, issued 
 some beautifully illustrated books, the most cele- 
 brated being the Horace, Terence, and Boethius, and 
 Brandt's Ship of Fools. He and another later Stras- 
 burg printer, Knoblochzer, share with Conrad Zeninger 
 of Nuremberg the doubtful honour of being the most 
 careless printers in the fifteenth century. 
 
 Albrecht Pfister was printing at Bamberg as early 
 
 1 This indulgence had been noticed by Bernard, De rOrigine de 
 rimprimerie, vol. ii. pp. 108, 109.
 
 44 Early Printed Books 
 
 as 1461, and his first dated book, Boner's Edelstein, 
 was issued on 4th February of that year. He used 
 but one type, a discarded fount from Mainz which 
 had been used in printing the thirty-six line Bible 
 and the other books of that group. By many he is 
 credited with being the printer of the thirty-six line 
 Bible, a theory which a short examination of the 
 workmanship of his signed books would go far to 
 upset. Pfister seems to have been more of a wood 
 engraver than a printer, relying rather on the attract- 
 ive nature of his illustrations than on the elegance of 
 his printing. We can attribute to him with certainty 
 nine books, with one exception all written in German, 
 and with two exceptions all illustrated with woodcuts. 
 Mr. Hessels is of opinion that certain of these books 
 ought to be placed, on account of their workmanship, 
 before the Boner of 1461 ; as, for instance, the Quarrel 
 of a Widower with Death, in which the lines are very 
 uneven. There are certain peculiarities noticeable in 
 Pfister's method of work which occur also in the 
 Manung widder die Durke, a prognostication for 
 1455, preserved in the Royal Library, Munich, and in 
 the Cisianus zu dutsdie at Cambridge, the most marked 
 being the filling up of blank spaces with an ornament 
 of stops. The curious rhyming form of these calen- 
 dars, and the dialect of German in which they are 
 written, resemble exactly the rhyming colophon put 
 by Pfister to the Boner's Edelstein. In all three 
 cases the ends of the lines are not marked, hut the 
 works are printed as prose.
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 45 
 
 Paulus Paulirinus of Prague, in his description of 
 a ' ciripagus ' wrote : ' Et tempore mei Pambergae 
 quidam sculpsit integram Bibliam super lamellas, et 
 in quatuor septimanis totam Bibliam super parga- 
 meno subtili presignavit scriptura.' Some writers 
 have suggested that these words refer to the thirty- 
 six line Bible; but a 'Bible cut on thin plates' can 
 only be a block-book, and probably an edition of the 
 Biblia Pauper urn. Paul of Prague composed a large 
 part of his book before 1463, when no other printer 
 besides Pfister was at work at Bamberg, and these 
 words probably apply to either the Latin or German 
 edition of the Biblia Pauperum which Pfister issued. 
 
 We have no information as to when or where 
 Pfister began to print, and the extraordinary rarity of 
 his books prevents mtteh connected work upon them. 
 There is no doubt that he came into possession of the 
 type of the thirty-six line Bible, and in this type a 
 number of books were printed. The earliest of these 
 books is probably the Manung Widder die Durke, 
 which, since it was a prognostication for 1455, was 
 presumably printed in 1454. This book, as far as it is 
 possible to judge, was manifestly printed after the 
 thirty-six line Bible, and by a different printer. In it 
 we first find the peculiar lozenge-shaped ornament of 
 stops which continues through the series of books in 
 this type. The calendar of 1457 in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, probably printed in 1456, is the next piece 
 in the series to which an approximate date can be 
 given. Of this calendar, originally printed on a
 
 46 Early Printed Books 
 
 single sheet, only the upper half remains, found in 
 1804 at Mainz, where it had been used as a cover for 
 some ecclesiastical papers. It bears the following in- 
 scription: 'Prebendarum. Registrum capituli ecclesie 
 Sancti Gengolffi intra muros Moguntiae receptorum et 
 distributorum anno LVIL, per Johan : Kess, vicarium 
 ecclesie predicte.' Thus, at the end of the year 1457 
 or beginning of 1458, it was treated at Mainz as 
 waste-paper. With this calendar may be classed the 
 Cisianus zu dutscJie at Cambridge, a rhyming calendar 
 in German. 
 
 There are, then, the series of nine or ten books, 
 usually all given to Pfister, though only two bear his 
 name ; and of these some are after and some can be 
 placed before 1461. The typographical peculiarities 
 of Pfister's signed books are the same as those of 
 the early calendars, and point to his having also 
 produced them. This brings us at once into the obvi- 
 ous difficulties, for we should have Pfister printing 
 as early as 1454, while Gutenberg was still in partner- 
 ship with Fust. The knowledge about Pfister's press 
 is too meagre to allow any of these difficulties to be 
 cleared up, though something may yet result from a 
 more careful examination of the books themselves. 
 The only examples in England of books printed by 
 Pfister (with the exception of the Cisianus) are in the 
 Spencer Library. There are there four books and a 
 fragment of a fifth. 
 
 The conjecture put forward by M. Dziatzko, that 
 Gutenberg may have printed the thirty-six line Bible
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 47 
 
 in partnership with some other printer, as, for 
 example, Pfister, would certainly, if any proof in its 
 favour could be adduced, simplify matters very much. 
 We should then have all the books in a natural 
 sequence, from the Bible to the latest books of Pfister, 
 and we could account for the printing of the Manung 
 in 1454, while Gutenberg was still in partnership 
 with Fust and Schceffer for the production of the 
 forty-two line Bible. The workmanship of the thirty- 
 six line Bible is in some points different from the 
 later books, all of which were probably the work of 
 Pfister, who, according to this theory, must have been 
 at work at Mainz as early as 1454. The contract 
 between Gutenberg and Fust did not necessarily bind 
 the former to print only with Fust, so that he may 
 also have worked with Pfister, and taught him the 
 art. 
 
 Pfister's last dated book, The Histories of Joseph, 
 Daniel, Judith, and Est/ier, was printed in 1462, not 
 long after the day of St. Walburga (May i). 
 
 After this time we hear of no book printed at Bam- 
 berg till 1481, when John Sensenschmidt printed the 
 Missale Ordinis S. Bcnedicti, commonly known as the 
 Bamberg Missal. 
 
 Cologne, from its situation on the Rhine, was in a 
 favourable position for receiving information and 
 materials from Mainz, and we find that by 1466, 
 Ulric Zel of Hanau, a clerk of the diocese of Mainz, 
 was settled there as a printer. His first dated book 
 was the Chrysostom Super psalmo quinquagesimo ; but
 
 48 Early Printed Books 
 
 some other books were certainly issued before it. 
 The Cicero De Officiis, a quarto with thirty-four lines 
 to the page, is earlier, and is perhaps the first book 
 he issued. It has many signs of being a very early 
 production, and may possibly have been issued before 
 Schceflfer's edition of 1465. 
 
 M. Madden, in his Lettres d'un Bibliographe, has 
 argued that a very early school of typography existed 
 at Cologne, in the Monastery of Weidenbach. 
 Though his researches have thrown a great deal 
 of light on various points connected with early print- 
 ing, and are in some ways of real value, much that 
 he has theorised about Weidenbach requires con- 
 firmation. We can hardly be expected to believe, 
 as he would try to persuade us, that Caxton, and Zel, 
 and Jenson, and many other printers whose types 
 belong to different families, could all learn printing 
 at this one place. It would be impossible for men 
 who had learnt to print in the same school to produce 
 such radically different kinds of type, and work in 
 such different methods. The early tentative essays 
 of Zel's press can be clearly identified, and their order 
 more or less accurately determined, from their typo- 
 graphical characteristics. His earliest books were 
 quartos ; and of these the first few have four point 
 holes to the page. These point holes are small 
 holes about an inch from the top and bottom lines, 
 and nearly parallel with the sides of the type, made 
 by the four pins which went through the paper when 
 one side of the page was printed, and served as a
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 49 
 
 guide to place the paper straight when the other side 
 was printed. 1 
 
 Then, before he settled down to printing his quartos 
 with twenty-seven lines to the page, he experimented 
 with various numbers of lines. We can safely start 
 with the following books in the following order : 
 
 A. Cicero, De officiis, 34 lines to the page. 
 
 Chrysaslom, Super psalmoquinquagesimo, 1466,33 ,, 
 
 Gerson, Super materia celebrationis miss& t . 31 ,, 
 
 Alphabetum divini amoris, . .31 ,, 
 
 These form an early group by themselves, and 
 commence on the first leaf; the second group begins 
 with 
 
 B. Augustinus, De vita Christiana and De singularitate clericorum, 
 
 1467, 28 and 27 lines to the page. 
 
 Then follows a number of tracts by Gerson and 
 Chrysostom, all having four point holes, and all 
 probably printed before 1470. Zel continued to 
 print throughout the whole of the fifteenth century. 
 
 At a very early date there were a number of other 
 printers settled at Cologne, all using types which, 
 though easily distinguishable, are similar in appear- 
 ance and of the same family ; and their books have 
 generally been ascribed to Zel. To many of them 
 it is impossible to put a printer's name ; and certain 
 of them have been divided into groups known by the 
 
 1 The use of four points to obtain a correct register is generally a 
 sure sign of the infancy of a press. Blades says they are to be found 
 in all the books printed in Caxton's Type I. 
 
 D
 
 50 Early Printed Books 
 
 title of the commonest book 'in that group which has 
 no edition in another group. For instance, we have 
 a certain number of books printed by the printer 
 of the Historia Sancti Albani ; another printer is 
 known as the printer of Dictys (perhaps Arnold ther 
 Hoernen) ; another as the printer of Augustimts de 
 Fide (perhaps Goiswin Gops), and so on. No doubt, 
 in time, when the Cologne press has been more care- 
 fully studied, the identity of some of these printers 
 will be discovered ; but at present there are a great 
 many difficulties waiting to be cleared away. 
 
 Arnold ther Hoernen, who began to print in or 
 before 1470, was the pioneer of several improvements. 
 The Sermo ad populum, printed in 1470, has a title- 
 page, and the leaves numbered in the centre of the 
 right-hand margin ; very soon after he printed a book 
 with headlines. He printed ' infra sedecim domes,' 
 and used a small neat device, of which there are two 
 varieties, always confused. John Koelhoff, a native 
 of Lubeck, printed at Cologne from 1472 (?) to 1493, 
 when he died. If the date of 1472 in his Expositio 
 Decalogi of Nider be correct, he was the first printer 
 who used ordinary printed signatures ; but the date of 
 the book is questioned. The shapes of the capital 
 letters in Koelhoffs types are very distinctive ; and it 
 is curious to notice that a fount unmistakably copied 
 from them was used by a Venetian printer named 
 John de Colonia. Nicholas Gotz of Sletzstat, who 
 began printing about 1470, though we find no dated 
 book of his before 1474, and who finished in 1480,
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 5 1 
 
 used a device engraved upon copper in the ' maniere 
 criblee,' or dotted style. It consists of a coat-of-arms 
 surmounted by a helmet and crest, with his motto, 
 ' Sola spes mea inte virginis gratia.' In some books 
 we find the motto printed in a different form ' Spes 
 mea sola in virginis gratia.' In 1475 was issued the 
 Sermo de presentacione beatissime virginis Marie, the 
 only book known containing the name of Goiswinus 
 Gops de Euskyrchen. In 1476, Peter Bergman de 
 Olpe and Conrad Winters de Homborch began to 
 print, and were followed in 1477 by Guldenschaff, and 
 in 1479 by Henry Quentell, the last named being the 
 most important printer at Cologne during the latter 
 years of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Gunther Zainer was the first printer at Augsburg ; 
 and in March 1468 issued his first dated book, the 
 Meditationes vite domini nostri Jesu Christi, by Bona- 
 venture. Some of his undated books show signs 
 from their workmanship of having been printed at a 
 still earlier date. At first he used a small Gothic type, 
 but in 1472 he published the Etymologies S. Isidori 
 in a beautiful Roman letter, the first, with a date, 
 used in Germany. His later books are printed in a 
 large, thick, black letter, and have in many cases 
 ornamental capitals and borders. He was connected 
 in some way with the Monastery of the Chartreuse at 
 Buxheim, and to their library he gave many of his 
 books ; and we learn from their archives that he died 
 on the 1 3th April 1478. By 1472 we find two more 
 printers settled in Augsburg, John Baemler and John
 
 52 Early Printed Books 
 
 Schussler. The first of these, before becoming a 
 printer, had been a scribe and rubricator, and as such 
 had sometimes signed his name to books. This has 
 given rise to the idea that he printed them, and he is 
 often quoted as the printer of a Bible in 1466. He 
 worked from 1472 to I495> printing a very large 
 number of books. Schussler printed only for three 
 years, from 1470 to 1473, issuing about eight books, 
 printed in a curious small type, half-Gothic, half- 
 Roman, and very like that used at Subiaco. About 
 1472-73, Melchior de Stanheim, head of the Monas- 
 tery of SS. Ulric and Afra, purchased some presses 
 and began to print with types, which seem to have 
 been borrowed from other Augsburg printers, such as 
 Zainer, Schussler, and Anthony Sorg. The latter 
 started on his own account in 1475, and issued a very 
 large number of books between that year and 1493. 
 
 The early Augsburg books are especially noted for 
 their woodcuts, which, though not perhaps of much 
 artistic merit, are very numerous and curious. Some 
 very beautifully printed books were also produced 
 about the end of the century by John Schoensperger, 
 who is celebrated as the printer of the Theurdanck 
 of 1517. 
 
 In 1470, John Sensenschmidt and Henry Keppfer 
 of Mainz, whom we have before spoken of as a servant 
 of Gutenberg, began to print at Nuremberg. Their 
 first book was the Codex egregius comes torii viciorum^ 
 and in the colophon the printer says : ' Nuremburge 
 anno, etc., LXX patronarum formarumque concordia
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 53 
 
 et proporcione impressus.' These words are exactly 
 copied from the colophon of the Catholicon, which is 
 considered to have been printed by Gutenberg. 
 
 In 1472, Frederick Creusner and Anthony Koburger, 
 the two most famous Nuremberg printers, both began 
 to print. They seem to have been closely connected 
 in business, and we sometimes find Creusner using 
 Koburger's type; for instance, the Poggius of 1475 
 by Creusner, and the Boethius of 1473 by Koburger, 
 are in the same type. Most of the early Nuremberg 
 types are readily distinguished by the capital N, in 
 which the cross stroke slants the wrong way. Ko- 
 burger was perhaps the most important printer and 
 publisher of the fifteenth century. He is said to have 
 employed twenty-four presses at Nuremberg, besides 
 having books printed for him in other towns. About 
 1480 he issued a most interesting catalogue, of which 
 there is a copy in the British Museum, containing the 
 titles of twenty-two books, not all, however, printed 
 by himself. In 1495 he printed also an advertisement 
 of the Nuremberg Chronicles?- 
 
 Though Spire was not an important town in the 
 history of printing, a book was printed there as early 
 as 1471. This was the Postilla super Apocalypsin 
 [Hain, 13,310]. It is a quarto, printed in a rude 
 
 1 These early book catalogues supply a very great deal of curious 
 information, and are very well worth careful study. An extremely 
 good article by Wilhelm Meyer, containing reprints of twenty-two, was 
 issued some years ago in the Centralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen; and 
 since that time reprints of a few others have appeared in the same 
 magazine.
 
 54 Early Printed Books 
 
 Roman type, but with a Gothic V. Two other works 
 of Augustine and one of Huss (Gesta Christt) are 
 known, printed in a larger type, but without date, 
 place, or name of printer. It has usually been 
 assumed, on what grounds is not stated, that these 
 books were printed by Peter Drach ; but as at present 
 no book is known in this type with his name, it is 
 perhaps wiser to assign them to an unknown printer. 
 Peter Drach's first dated book was issued in 1477, 
 and the history of his press at this time is particularly 
 interesting. The type in which his Vocabularius 
 utriusque Juris of May 1477 is printed, is absolutely 
 the same as that used in December of the same year 
 for printing the Vocabularius ex quo, printed, accord- 
 ing to its colophon, by Nicholas Bechtermuntze at 
 Eltvil. On this subject it is best to quote Mr. 
 Hessels' own words, for to him this discovery is due: 1 
 ' I may here observe that Type 3 [that of Bechter- 
 muncze in 1477] is exactly the same as that used by 
 Peter Drach at Spire. When I received this Vocabu- 
 lary \ex quo of 1477] from Munich, the only book I 
 had seen of Drach was the Leonardi de Utino Ser- 
 mones, published in 1479 ; and it occurred to me that 
 Bechtermuncze had probably ceased to print about 
 this time, and might have transferred his type to 
 Drach. But this appears not to have been the case, 
 as Drach published already, on the i8th May 1477, 
 the Vocabularius Juris utriusque, printed with the 
 
 1 Gutenberg ; Was he the Inventor of Printing ? By J. H. Hessels. 
 ondon, 1882. 8vo. P. 181.
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 55 
 
 very same type, and must therefore have been in 
 possession of his type simultaneously with Bechter- 
 muncze. The question therefore arises, Did Drach 
 perhaps print the 1477 Vocabulary for Nicolaus 
 Bechtermuncze ? ' 
 
 This question must, unfortunately, be left for the 
 present where Mr. Hessels has left it, but it offers a 
 most interesting point for further research. 
 
 From 1477, Peter Drach continued to print at any 
 rate to the end of the fifteenth century; but it is 
 perhaps possible that there were a father and son of 
 the same name, whose various books have not been 
 separated. The Omeliarum opus of 1482 [Hain, 8789] 
 is spoken of as ' factore Petro Drach juniore in in- 
 clita Spirensium urbe impressum.' The only other 
 interesting printers at Spire were the brothers John 
 and Conrad Hijst, whose names are found in the 
 preface to an edition of the Philobiblon of Richard de 
 Bury, which they printed about 1483. They used 
 an ornamental Gothic type, generally confused with 
 that belonging to Reyser of Eichstadt, and their 
 unsigned books are almost always described by 
 Hain and others as printed ' typis Reyserianis.' 
 
 Only one printer is known to have been at Ess- 
 lingen in the fifteenth century. This was Conrad 
 Fyner, who began to print in 1472, and continued 
 in the town till 1480. Though the first dated book 
 is 1472, it is most probable that several of the un- 
 dated books should be placed earlier. Fyner's first 
 small type is extremely like one used at Strasburg
 
 56 Early Printed Books 
 
 by Eggestein, if indeed it is not identical, and their 
 books are constantly confused. In 1473, Fyner 
 printed Gerson's Collectorium super Magnificat, the 
 first book containing printed musical notes ; and in 
 1475, P. Niger'contra perfidos Judeos> which contains 
 the first specimen of Hebrew type. One book in 
 Fyner's type [Hain, *9335] is said to be printed by 
 Johannes Hug de Goppingen. In 1481, Fyner moved 
 to Urach, where he printed one book, and after that 
 date he disappears. 
 
 At Lavingen only one book is known to have 
 been printed in the fifteenth century. It is the 
 Augustinus de consensu evangelistarum [Hain, *i98i], 
 issued on April 12, 1473. Madden conjectures from 
 the appearance of the type and the capital letters 
 that the book was printed by John Zainer of Ulm. 
 Both type and capitals, however, are different, but 
 their resemblance is quite natural considering the 
 short distance between Ulm and Lavingen. 
 
 At an early period Ulm was very important as a 
 centre for wood engraving, and several block-books 
 are known to have been produced there. An edition 
 of the Ars Moriendi is signed Ludwig ze Ulm, whom 
 Dr. Hassler conjectures to have been Ludwig Hohen- 
 wang. The earliest printer that we find mentioned in 
 a dated book is John Zainer of Reutlingen, no doubt 
 a relation of Gunther Zainer the printer at Augsburg. 
 He issued in 1473 a work by Boccaccio, De pr cedar is 
 mulieribus, illustrated with a number of woodcuts, 
 and having also woodcut initials and borders. He
 
 Spread of Printing in Germany 57 
 
 printed from this time to the end of the century, 
 many of his books being ornamented. Another 
 printer at Ulm to be noticed is Conrad Dinckmut, 
 who printed from 1482 to 1496. He was probably a 
 wood engraver, for he illustrated many of his books 
 with woodcuts, and also produced a xylographic 
 Donatus, of which there is an imperfect copy in the 
 Bodleian. 
 
 In 1473, printing was introduced into Merseburg 
 by Luke Brandis, who moved in 1475 to Lubeck. 
 In 1475, also, Conrad Elyas began to print at Breslau, 
 and by 1480 no fewer than twenty-three towns had 
 printing presses. Between 1480 and 1490 the art 
 was introduced into fifteen more towns, and between 
 1490 and 1501 into twelve. So that the total number 
 of places in Germany where printing was practised in 
 the fifteenth century is fifty. 
 
 Basle was the first city of Switzerland into which 
 printing was introduced, but it Is hard to determine 
 when this took place. The earliest printer was 
 Berthold Rodt, or Ruppel of Hanau, who is supposed 
 to be the same man as the Bertholdus of Hanau 
 who figures in the lawsuit of 1455 as a servant of 
 Gutenberg. It is not till 1473, in the colophon of 
 the Repertorium Vocabulorum of Conrad de Mure, 
 that we find either his name or a date ; but many 
 books are known printed in the same type. One of 
 these, the Moralia in Job of St Gregory, was printed 
 in or before 1468, for one copy contains a manuscript 
 note showing that it was bought in that year by
 
 58 Early Printed Books 
 
 Joseph de Vergers, an ecclesiastic of Mainz. About 
 1474, Berthold began to print a Bible, but finished 
 only the first volume, dying, it is supposed, about 
 that time. The second volume was printed by 
 Bernard Richel, and is dated 1475. The most 
 important printers of Basle were Wenssler, Amorbach, 
 and Froben. About 1469, Helyas de Louffen, a 
 canon of the Abbey of Beromunster, began to print, 
 and in 1470 issued the Mammotrectus of Marchesinus, 
 finished on the Vigil of St. Martin, the exact day and 
 year in which SchcefTer finished his edition of the 
 same book. Bernard says that the two editions are 
 certainly different, and could not have been copied 
 one from the other, so that the similarity of date 
 must be looked upon as a curious coincidence. This 
 Mammotrectus is the first dated book issued in 
 Switzerland, and is printed in the most remarkable 
 Gothic type used anywhere in the fifteenth century. 
 Many of the capital letters if found by themselves 
 could not be read, and it is a type which once seen 
 can never be forgotten. At the foot of each column 
 in the book is a letter which looks like a signature, 
 but which is put there for the purpose of a number to 
 the column. Helyas de Louffen died in 1475, having 
 printed about eight books, some in Gothic and some 
 in Roman type. 
 
 Before the end of the fifteenth century printing 
 presses were at work in five other towns of Switzer- 
 land : Geneva (1478), Promentour (1482), Lausanne 
 (1493), Trogen (1497), and Sursee (1500).
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 ITALIAN historians have several times attempted 
 to bring forward Pamphilo Castaldi as the inventor 
 of printing. It is little use to recapitulate here the 
 various unsupported assertions on which this claim is 
 based, a claim which, if it ever had, has now ceased 
 to have any sensible supporters. 
 
 We may safely assume, with our present know- 
 ledge, that the art of printing was introduced into 
 Italy in 1465 by two Germans, Conrad Sweynheym 
 and Arnold Pannartz. On their arrival in Italy they 
 settled first in the Monastery of Saint Scholastica at 
 Subiaco, an establishment of Benedictines, of which 
 Cardinal Turrecremata was Abbot, where they would 
 be in congenial society, since, as Cardinal Quirini 
 says, many of the inmates were Germans. 
 
 The first book which they printed was a Donatus 
 pro puerulis, of which they said in their list, printed 
 in 1472, ' unde imprimendi initium sumpsimus.' 
 Unfortunately, of this Donatus no copy is known, 
 though rumours of a copy in a private collection 
 in Italy have from time to time been circu- 
 lated. The earliest book from their press of which
 
 60 Early Printed Books 
 
 copies are in existence, is the Cicero De Oratore, 
 printed before 3Oth September I465. 1 It has been 
 always a moot point whether this Cicero De Oratore 
 or the Mainz Ciceronis Officia et Paradoxa, printed in 
 the same year, can justly claim to be the first printed 
 Latin classic, while the claims of the De Officiis of 
 Zel, which, though undated, is very probably as early, 
 have been entirely ignored. 
 
 The Subiaco De Oratore is a large quarto of 109 
 leaves, with thirty lines to the page. Like the first 
 German books, it is beautifully printed, and shows 
 few signs of being an early production. Sweynheym 
 and Pannartz must have learnt their business care- 
 fully, for this their first book is printed by half sheets, 
 i.e. two pages at a time, though other printers were 
 still printing their quartos page by page. 
 
 On the 29th October 1465 these printers issued 
 their first dated book, the first edition of Lactantius 
 De divinis institutionibus. Of this book 275 copies 
 were printed. It is a small folio of 188 leaves, and 
 thirty-six lines to the page, printed in a type which, 
 though Roman, is very Gothic in appearance, and is 
 sometimes called semi-Gothic. The smaller letters 
 have a curious resemblance to those used by Zainer 
 
 1 This book has usually been dated later than the Lactantius, that is, 
 after 29th October 1465 ; but M. Fumagalli, in his Dei primi libri a 
 stampa in Italia, Lugano, 1875, 8vo, describes a copy containing a 
 manuscript note dated ' Pridie Kal. Octobres, M.cccc.lxv.,' so that the 
 Cicero must be considered the first known book printed in Italy. On 
 the other hand, it should be noticed that some authorities consider the 
 inscription to be a forgery.
 
 Italy 6 1 
 
 at Ulm and by Schussler at Augsburg in their 
 earliest books, though the capital letters are quite 
 different. 
 
 The fourth and last book printed by Sweynheym 
 and Pannartz at Subiaco was an edition of the De 
 civitate dei of Saint Augustine. This is a large 
 folio of 270 leaves, with two columns, and forty-four 
 lines to the page. It was issued on the I2th June 
 1467 ; and though it contains no name of either 
 printer or place, can be easily identified by the 
 type. A copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale has an 
 extremely interesting manuscript note, which tells 
 us that Leonardus Dathus, 'Episcopus Massanus/ 
 bought the book from the Germans themselves, living 
 at Rome, who were producing innumerable books 
 of that sort by means of printing, not writing, in 
 November 1467. This note is valuable in two ways ; 
 it puts it beyond doubt who the printers of the book 
 were, and it also enables us to determine more 
 precisely the date when they left Subiaco. The 
 Augustine was finished in June, and by November the 
 printers were at Rome. As they issued a book in 
 Rome in 1467, and would take some time to settle in 
 their new establishment and prepare their new types, 
 we may take it as probable that they left the 
 Monastery of Subiaco as soon as possible after the 
 printing of the Augustine. 
 
 About June, then, Sweynheym and Pannartz left 
 the Monastery of Subiaco and transferred their print- 
 ing materials to Rome, finding a home in a house
 
 62 Early Printed Books 
 
 belonging to the brothers Peter and Francis de 
 Maximis. The semi-Gothic fount of type which had 
 been used at Subiaco was discarded in favour of one 
 more Roman in character, though heavily cut and 
 not so graceful as the Venetian of the same period. 
 A curious appearance is given to it by the invariable 
 use of the long f. Their first venture was again a 
 work of Cicero, the Epistolcs ad familiares, a large 
 quarto of thirty-one lines to the page. It has the 
 following colophon : 
 
 ' Hoc Conradus opus Suueynheym ordine miro 
 Arnoldusque simul pannarts una aede colendi 
 Gente theotonica : romse expediere sodales. 
 
 In domo Petri de Maximo. M.CCCC.LXVII.' 
 
 From this time forward, under the able super- 
 vision of the Bishop of Aleria, Sweynheym and 
 Pannartz continued to print with the greatest in- 
 dustry, but they did not meet with the support which 
 they merited. In 1472 they had become so badly off 
 that a letter was written to Pope Sixtus IV. pointing 
 out their distress, and asking for assistance. This 
 letter, printed on one sheet, is usually found in the 
 fifth volume of Nicholas de Lyra's Commentary 
 on tJu Bible, printed in 1472. Its great biblio- 
 graphical interest lies in the fact that the printers 
 gave a list of what they had printed and the number 
 of copies they issued. In the list twenty-eight works 
 are mentioned, and the number of volumes amounted 
 altogether to 1 1,475. They usually issued 275 copies 
 of each work which they printed.
 
 Italy 63 
 
 This list also clearly shows the extraordinary 
 influence of the new learning so actively promoted 
 by Cosmo de Medici and encouraged by his grandson 
 Lorenzo. The majority of the books in this list 
 are classics, either in their original Latin or in Latin 
 translations from the Greek ; and that the printers 
 were anxious to benefit scholars, is shown by the 
 assertion of the Bishop of Aleria in the prefatory 
 letter to the Ciceronis Epistolcz ad Atticum of 1470, 
 where it is said that they had produced their editions 
 of Cicero at the lowest possible price, " ad pauperum 
 commoditatem." 
 
 To judge from the results, the appeal to the Pope 
 was of little effect, for in 1473 Conrad Sweynheym 
 gave up the business of printing, and confined his 
 attention to engraving on metal ; while Pannartz con- 
 tinued to print by himself up till the end of 1476, 
 issuing in those three years about twelve books. The 
 last book on which Pannartz was engaged was a 
 new edition of the Letters of St. Jerome, but he only 
 finished one volume. Three years later, George 
 Laver, who seems to have acquired the type, issued 
 the second volume. It is therefore quite probable, as 
 is generally asserted, that Pannartz died in 1476 or 
 early in 1477. Sweynheym, ever since he had given 
 up printing, had been engaged in engraving a series 
 of maps to illustrate Ptolemy's Geography ; but, after 
 working three years upon them, died before they 
 were finished. The edition of Ptolemy was finally 
 issued in 1478 by Arnold Buckinck, a German, who
 
 64 Early Printed Books 
 
 in his preface said that he was anxious 'that the 
 emendations of Calderinus who also died before the 
 book was printed and the results of Sweynheym's 
 most ingenious mechanical contrivances might not be 
 lost to the learned world.' 
 
 ' Magister vero Conradus Sweynheym, Germanus, 
 a quo formandorum Romae librorum ars primum pro- 
 fecta est, occasione hinc sumpta posteritati consulens 
 animum primum ad hanc doctrinam capescendam 
 applicuit. Subinde mathematicis adhibitis viris 
 quemadmodum tabulis eneis imprimerentur edocuit, 
 triennioque in hac cura consumpto diem obiit In 
 cujus vigilarum laborumque partem non inferiori 
 ingenio ac studio Arnoldus Buckinck e Germania vir 
 apprime eruditus ad imperfectum opus succedens, ne 
 Domitii Conradique obitu eorum vigiliae emenda- 
 tionesque sine testimonio perirent neve virorum 
 eruditorum censuram fugerent immensae subtilitatis 
 machinimenta, examussim ad unum perfecit' 
 
 The book contains twenty-seven maps, each map 
 being printed on two separate leaves facing each 
 other, and printed only on one side. The letters 
 which occur on the maps in the names of places are 
 evidently punched from single dies, and not cut on the 
 plate, as would have been expected. The letterpress 
 of the book is not printed in any type used by 
 Sweynheym or Pannartz, which shows that Buckinck 
 was the absolute printer of the book. 
 
 Ulric Hahn, who contests with Sweynheym and 
 Pannartz for the honour of having introduced printing
 
 Italy 65 
 
 into Rome, issued as his first book, in 1467, the 
 Meditations of Cardinal Torquemada, better known 
 perhaps as Turrecremata. It is illustrated with 
 thirty-three woodcuts of inferior execution, and is 
 printed in a large Gothic type. This type the printer 
 discarded the following year for one of Roman letter ; 
 but odd types from the Gothic fount frequently make 
 their appearance among the Roman, and serve as a 
 means of distinguishing Hahn's books from others 
 in similar Roman type. As a case in point, we 
 may mention the early and probably first edition of 
 Catullus, wrongly ascribed to Andrea Belfortis of 
 Ferrara and other printers. This book is in Hahn's 
 Roman type, and contains three capital letters from 
 his Gothic fount, a more sure means of identifica- 
 tion than a fancied allusion to a printer's name. 1 For 
 a short time, from 1470 to 1472, Hahn's books were 
 edited by Campanus, a scholar of such fame and 
 erudition, that the printer was able to rival Sweynheym 
 and Pannartz, with their editor the Bishop of Aleria ; 
 but on Campanus taking his departure for Ratisbon, 
 the prestige of Hahn's press declined. From the pen 
 of Campanus came perhaps the punning colophons 
 which play upon the name of Hahn, in Latin, Gallus, 
 
 1 The edition of Catullus, mentioned above, is ascribed to Andrea 
 Belfortis, because the words ' cui Francia nomen ' occur in the 
 prefatory verses ; and the same words occur, referring to Belfortis, in 
 a book printed by him. But the types of the Catullus and those 
 used by Andrea Belfortis are certainly different, while both the 
 types of the Catullus are found in other books printed by Hahn. Th e 
 Catullus has also a Registrum Chartarum, which was almost invariably 
 put to his books by Hahn. 
 
 E
 
 66 Early Printed Books 
 
 meaning in English a cock. Upon the departure of 
 Campanus, Hahn took in partnership one Simon 
 Nicolai Chardella of Lucca, who seems to have 
 supplied the money as well as superintended the 
 publishing, and they continued to work together till 
 1474. From this date till 1478, Hahn continued to 
 work alone, ending in that year as he had begun, 
 with an edition of the Meditationes of Torquemada. 
 His former partner, Simon Nicolai, started a press 
 on his own account, having as an associate his 
 cousin. 
 
 The latest writer * on the early history of printing 
 in Venice has again revived the question as to the 
 correctness of the date of the Decor Puellarum. 
 Though he still clings to the possibility of the date 
 1461 being trustworthy, the weight of evidence, all 
 of which is carefully stated, is decisively in favour 
 of its being a misprint for 1471. 
 
 It would be useless to recapitulate here all the 
 arguments in favour of Jenson having printed in 
 1461, when it is now generally admitted that John 
 of Spire was the first printer at Venice, and that 
 his first book was the Epistola familiares of Cicero, 
 issued in 1469. Of this book only one hundred 
 copies were printed. On the i8th September 1469, 
 the Collegio of Venice granted to John of Spire 
 a monopoly of printing in that district for five years ; 
 and this document distinctly indicates that he was 
 
 1 The Venetian Printing Press. By Horatio F. Brown. London, 
 1891. 4 to.
 
 Italy 67 
 
 the first printer at Venice. He did not, however, 
 live to obtain the advantage of this privilege, ' nullius 
 est vigoris quia obiit magister et auctor,' says a 
 contemporary marginal note to the record, for he 
 died in 1470. Previous to his death he printed a 
 Pliny, the first volume of a Livy, two editions of 
 the Epistolce adfamiliares, and part of the Augustine 
 De civitate dei, which was finished by his brother 
 Windelin. 
 
 'Subita sed morte peremptus 
 Non potuit cceptum Venetis finire volumen.' 
 
 Windelin of Spire was a very prolific printer, 
 and continued to issue books without intermission 
 from the time of his brother's death, in 1470, to his 
 own in 1478. But among the early Venetian printers 
 the most important was certainly Nicholas Jenson. 
 A Frenchman by birth, he passed his apprenticeship 
 in the Paris Mint, and became afterwards the head 
 of the Mint at Tours. In 1458, in consequence of 
 the stories of the invention of printing, he was sent 
 by Charles VII. to Mainz to learn the art, and 
 introduce it into France. Jenson returned in 1461, 
 when Louis XI. had just been crowned ; but he does 
 not seem to have settled in France, and we first 
 hear of him again in 1470 as a printer at Venice. 
 From 1470 to 1480 he printed continuously, issuing, 
 according to Sardini, at least one hundred and fifty- 
 five editions, though this number must be consider- 
 ably under the mark. His will was drawn up on 
 the /th September 1480, and he died in the same
 
 68 Early Printed Books 
 
 month. The fame of Jenson rests on the extra- 
 ordinary beauty of his Roman type, of which he had 
 but one fount, and which, though frequently copied, 
 was never equalled. In 1474 he began to use Gothic 
 type, owing to its great saving of space ; and in 1471, 
 in the Epistolce familiares, he used Greek type in 
 the quotations, the first instance of its employment 
 in Venice. It is curious that, with its devotion to 
 the new learning, Venice should not have been the 
 first to issue a Greek book. Jenson had frequently 
 to use Greek type in his books, but he never printed 
 a complete work in that language. Milan led the 
 way, printing the Greek Grammar of Lascaris in 1476 ; 
 and it was not till 1485 that Venice issued its first 
 Greek book, the Erotemata of Chrysoloras. 
 
 In 1470, another German, Christopher Valdarfer of 
 Ratisbon, began to print. He .left Venice in 1473, 
 and settled at Milan, and the books which he printed 
 at the former place are very rare and few in number. 
 The best known is the Decameron of 1471, the first 
 edition of the book, familiar to all readers of Dibdin. 
 
 In 1471 was issued the De medicinis universalibus, 
 printed by Clemens Sacerdos (Clement of Padua), 
 the first Italian printer in Venice ; and in the year 
 following, Philippus Petri, 1 the first native Venetian 
 printer, began to print. 
 
 Between 1470 and 1480 at least fifty printers were 
 
 1 This printer's name seems to have led to a certain amount of 
 confusion. He was Filippo the son of Piero, in Latin, Philippus 
 Petri ; but after his father's death, about the end of 1477, he calls 
 himself Philippus quondam Petri, Filippo son of the late Piero.
 
 Italy 69 
 
 at work in Venice, and among the most important 
 were John de Colonia, John Manthen de Gerretzem, 
 Erhard Ratdolt, Octavianus Scotus. Erhard Ratdolt 
 is especially of importance, for he was practically 
 the first to introduce wood engravings in his books. 
 In 1476, Ratdolt and his partners, Peter Loeslein and 
 Bernard Pictor, began their work together by issuing 
 a Calendar of Regiomontanus, with a very beautiful 
 title-page surrounded by a woodcut border. From 
 that time onwards, woodcuts were used in many 
 Venetian books ; and at last, in 1499, there appeared 
 there that unsurpassed illustrated book the Hypnero- 
 tomachia of Franciscus Columna. 
 
 The history of the later Venetian press during the 
 last ten years of the fifteenth century would require 
 at least a volume. So far as the history of typo- 
 graphy itself is concerned, there is nothing of interest 
 to be noticed ; but in the general history of printing 
 Venice holds the highest place, for more printers 
 printed there than in any other city of Europe. Of 
 course, amongst this endless outpour of the press 
 many important books were issued, but there are few 
 which have any interest for the historian of printing. 
 
 There is, however, one printer who must always 
 make this period celebrated. Aldus Manutius was 
 born at Bassiano in 1450, and began to print at 
 Venice in 1494. His main idea when he commenced 
 to work was to print Greek books ; and it was per- 
 haps for that reason that he settled in Venice, where 
 so many manuscripts were preserved, and where so
 
 70 Early Printed Books 
 
 many Greeks resided. His first two books, both 
 issued in 1494, are the Galeomyomachia and the De 
 Herone et Leandro of Musaeus. In 1496 he obtained 
 a copyright for twenty years in such Greek books as 
 he might print, and from this time forward a large 
 number were issued as fast as possible. So great 
 was the hurry, that the editors in some cases did not 
 scruple to hand over to the compositors the original 
 manuscripts themselves from which the edition was 
 taken, with their own emendations and corrections 
 scribbled upon them. But this custom was not con- 
 fined to the Aldine press, for Martin 1 tells us that 
 the Codex Ravennas of Aristophanes was actually 
 used by the compositors as the working copy from 
 which part of the Giunta edition of 1 5 1 5 was set up. 
 
 In 1499, Aldus married the daughter of Andrea 
 de Torresani, himself a great printer, and in 150x3 
 founded the Aldine Academy, the home of so many 
 editors, and the source of so many scholarly editions 
 of the sixteenth century. The end of the fifteenth 
 century saw, at any rate, two rivals in Greek print- 
 ing to Aldus : Gabriel da Brasichella, who with his 
 associates published in 1498 the Epistles of Phalaris 
 and sEso/s Fables ; and, in 1499, Zaccharia Caliergi 
 of Crete, who printed with others or alone up till 
 1509. Caliergi, it would appear, was hardly a rival 
 of Aldus; they were, at any rate, so far friendly 
 that Aldus sold Caliergi's editions along with his 
 own. 
 
 1 Martin, Les scholies du Manuscrit Aristophane h Ravenna.
 
 Italy 71 
 
 In 1470 a press was set up at Foligno, in the 
 house of Emilianus de Orsinis, by John Numeister, 
 a native of Mainz, who is generally said to have been 
 an associate and pupil of Gutenberg. This story 
 seems to be founded upon an assertion put forward 
 by Fischer, that a copy of the Tractatus de celebra- 
 tione missarum, in the University Library at Mainz, 
 contains a rubric stating that the book was printed 
 by Gutenberg and Numeister in 1463. If this note 
 ever existed, which is very doubtful, it is clearly a 
 forgery, for the book in which it is said to occur was 
 not printed till about 1480. 
 
 The first book in which we find Numeister's name 
 is the De bello Italico contra Gothos, by Aretinus, 
 printed in 1470; and about the same date he printed 
 an edition of the Epistolce familiares of Cicero. In 
 1472 appeared the first edition of Dante ; between 
 that year and 1479 we ^ ear nothing of Numeister. 
 In 1479 an edition of the Meditationes of Turrecre- 
 mata appeared with his name, printed in a large 
 church type, not unlike, though not, as is often said, 
 the same as, the type of the forty-two line Bible, 
 and containing very fine engraved cuts. This book 
 is generally stated, for some unknown reason, to have 
 been printed at Mainz. After this date we find no 
 further mention of Numeister ; but M. Claudin * has 
 written a monograph to show that he was the printer 
 of the edition of the Meditationes of Turrecremata 
 issued at Albi in 1481, a book remarkable for its 
 
 1 Origine de rimprimerie a Albi et en Languetioc.
 
 72 Early Printed Books 
 
 wonderful engravings on metal, and of the Missale 
 Lugdunense, printed at Lyons in 1487, which is stated 
 in the colophon to have been printed by ' Magistrum 
 Jo. alemanum de magontia impressorem.' 
 
 After 1470 the spread of printing in Italy was very 
 rapid. In 1471 we find it beginning at Bologna, 
 Ferrara, Florence, Milan, Naples, Pavia, and Treviso. 
 
 The first complete edition of Ovid was produced in 
 1471, and is the first book printed at Bologna, the 
 printer being Balthasar Azzoguidi, 'primus in sua 
 civitate artis impressoriae inventor,' as he calls him- 
 self in the preface to the book. Andrea Portilia 
 must also have been amongst the earliest printers at 
 Bologna, though his only dated book is 1473, for in 
 that year he returned to Parma. Among the many 
 printers who worked in the town, none are better 
 known, from the frequency with which their names 
 occur in colophons, than the various members of 
 the family 'de Benedictis,' who worked from 1488 
 onwards. 
 
 Andreas Belfortis, a Frenchman, was the first to 
 print at Ferrara, issuing in 1471 at least three books, 
 of which the earliest, published in July, is an edition 
 of Martial (which has catchwords to the quires in 
 the latter portion). This was followed by editions of 
 Poggio and A ugnstinus Dathus, Belfortis continued 
 to print till 1493. A certain Augustinus Garner, who 
 printed a few books between 1474 and 1476, printed 
 in 1475 the rare Teseide of Boccaccio, the first printed 
 poem in the Italian language. De Rossi, in his
 
 Italy 73 
 
 tract, De typographia Ebrao-Ferrariensi, gives a long 
 description of some Hebrew books printed at Ferrara 
 in 1477, which must be the first printed in that lan- 
 guage, though some words are found in a book 
 printed at Esslingen in 1475. 
 
 The first printer at Milan was Anthony Zarotus, 
 and his earliest book, with both name and date, is 
 the Virgil of 1472. In the previous year, four books 
 had been issued without any printer's name, but the 
 identity of the type with that of the Virgil shows 
 Zarotus to have printed these also. Mention has 
 often been made of a certain Terence, printed in 1470, 
 March 13. It is quoted by Hain (15,371), who had 
 not seen it, and oy Panzer (ii. u. 2), and a copy was 
 said to be in the library of the Earl of Pembroke, 
 the home of many mysterious books. It is often 
 quoted as the first book with signatures. It was 
 doubtless a copy of the edition of March 13, 1481, 
 in which some ingenious person had erased the last 
 two figures, xi, of the date. It is very probable that 
 there was at first some connection between Zarotus 
 and Philip de Lavagna ; and it was perhaps at the 
 latter's expense, and through his means, that Zarotus 
 first printed. Certainly, in the colophon of a book 
 printed in 1473, probably by Christopher Valdarfer, 
 are the words 'per Philippum de Lavagnia, hujus 
 artis stampandi in hac urbe primum latorem atque 
 inventorem ; ' but it is quite possible that the words 
 should not be taken in too narrow a sense, and 
 that Philip de Lavagna simply means to speak of
 
 74 Early Printed Books 
 
 himself as the first person to introduce printing into 
 Milan, not as printer, but as patron. 
 
 The history of the first printers in this town is very 
 interesting, for they entered into various partnerships, 
 and the documents relating to these have been pre- 
 served and published, 1 throwing a good deal of light 
 on some of the customs and methods of the early 
 printers. In 1476 was printed at Milan the Gram- 
 mar of Constantine Lascaris, the first book printed 
 in Greek; and in 1481, a Greek version of the 
 Psalms, the first portion of the Bible printed in this 
 language. 
 
 At Florence, Bernard Cennini, the celebrated gold- 
 smith and assistant of Ghiberti, printed, with the 
 assistance of two of his sons, an edition of the 
 Commentary of Servius on Virgil. It was begun 
 towards the end of 1471, and not finished till October 
 1472, but is the first book printed at Florence. This 
 is the only book known to have been printed by 
 Cennini ; but it is not unlikely that in his capacity of 
 goldsmith he did work for other printers in cutting 
 type. The most interesting press at Florence in the 
 fifteenth century, was that founded in the Monastery 
 of St. James of Ripoli by Dominic de Pistoia, the 
 head of the establishment. Beginning with a Donatus, 
 of which every copy has disappeared, it was carried 
 on briskly up till the time of his death in 1484, issuing, 
 according to Hain, just over fifty works ; according to 
 De Rossi, nearly one hundred. The account books 
 
 1 Saxius, Bibliotheca serif torum Mediolanensium. Milan, 174$. Fol.
 
 Italy 75 
 
 connected with this press have been preserved, and 
 from them we can learn the price of the various articles 
 used by the printers, such as paper, ink, type-metal. 
 Several kinds of paper are mentioned, and identified, 
 as a rule, by their watermarks. We have paper from 
 Fabriano with the mark of a crossbow, a different paper 
 from the same place marked with a cross, and two 
 sorts of paper from Pescia marked with spectacles and 
 a glove. There are several celebrated books printed 
 at Florence before 1500 which cannot be passed 
 over. In 1477 was issued the Monte Santo di Dio, 
 said to contain the first copperplate engraving ; and in 
 1481, the celebrated Dante, with engravings by Baccio 
 Baldini after the designs of Botticelli. Most copies 
 of this book contain only a few of the plates, while 
 about eight copies are known with the full number. 
 Some celebrated Greek books also were issued at 
 Florence, notably in 1488 the first edition of Homer 
 printed by Demetrius Chalcondylas at the expense of 
 two brothers, Bernardus and Nerius Nerlii. There 
 is a copy of this book in the British Museum, which 
 was bought by Mr. Barnard, librarian to George 
 III., for seven shillings. One complete copy on 
 vellum is known, in the library of St. Mark's at 
 Venice. 
 
 Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Francis 
 de Alopa printed five Greek books entirely in capital 
 letters, the AntJwlogia of 1494, Callimachus, Euripides 
 (four plays only), Apollonius Rhodius, 1496, Poetae 
 Gnomici, and Musceus. It is very probable that the
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 'editio princeps' of Lucian t which was printed at 
 Florence, but is ascribed by Ebert to Caliergi at 
 Venice, was also printed at this press. 
 
 Under the patronage of Ferdinand I., King of 
 Naples, Sixtus Riessinger of Strasburg began to 
 print there in 1471, and continued till 1479. He 
 seems to have been in high favour with the king, who 
 offered him a bishopric, which was, however, refused. 
 In 1472, Arnaldus de Bruxella set up his press, using 
 (unlike most other printers) Roman type only. The 
 large M and small y are of a curious form and easily 
 recognisable, while the final us in words is always 
 represented by an abbreviation. Most of the books 
 printed by him are rare ; of the Horace and Petrarch, 
 only single copies are known ; and it was for the sake 
 of acquiring these two books, so Dibdin tells us, that 
 Lord Spencer bought the Cassano Library. Hain 
 mentions seventeen books printed by this Arnaldus 
 de Bruxella, and out of that number he had seen only 
 one. Van der Meersch gives twenty-three ; but some 
 are doubtful. 
 
 Pavia is more celebrated for the number of books 
 it produced than for their interest, and it is only 
 mentioned here as one of the towns to which printing 
 is said to have been introduced in 1471. 
 
 The last town to be mentioned in this group is 
 Treviso, where, in 1471, that wandering printer 
 Gerardus de Lisa began to print. In his first year he 
 printed several books, but his industry gradually got 
 less. In 1477 we find him at Venice, in 1480 at
 
 Italy 77 
 
 Cividad di Friuli (Civitas Austriae), and in 1484 at 
 Udina. 
 
 1472 saw printing established in Cremona, Mantua, 
 Monreale, Padua, Parma, and Verona, and from this 
 time onwards it spread rapidly over the whole of 
 Italy, being introduced into seventy-one towns before 
 the end of the fifteenth century. For the study 
 of typography the Italian presses are not nearly so 
 interesting as those of other countries, but from a 
 literary point of view they are immeasurably superior. 
 The Renaissance movement had been at work in Italy 
 during the whole of the fifteenth century, and the 
 great impetus given by the fall of Constantinople was 
 acting most powerfully when the printing press was 
 introduced. Italy was then the sole guardian of the 
 ancient civilisation, and was prepared for a more rapid 
 method of reproducing its early treasures and spread- 
 ing the learning of its newer scholars.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 A CURIOUS prelude has been discovered within the 
 last few years to the history of the introduction of 
 printing into France. L'Abbe^ Requin, searching 
 through the archives of Avignon, brought to light a 
 series of entries relating to printing, 'ars scribendi 
 artificialiter,' as it is there called, dated as far back as 
 the year I444- 1 
 
 The information obtained from the notarial books, 
 fairly complete in its way, is as follows : A certain 
 silversmith, named Procopius Waldfoghel of Prague, 
 was settled at Avignon by the beginning of 1444, and 
 was working at printing, in conjunction with a student 
 of the university, Manaudus Vitalis, whom he had 
 supplied with printing materials. 
 
 In a notarial act of the 4th July of that year, 
 the following materials are mentioned : ' Duo abece- 
 daria calibis et duas formas ferreas, unum instrumen- 
 tum calibis vocatum vitis, quadraginta octo formas 
 stangni necnon diversas alias formas ad artem scri- 
 
 1 Ulmprimerie & Avignon en 1444. By L'Abbe Requin. Paris, 
 1890. Origincs de Flmprimerie en France (Avignon, 1444). By 
 X/Abbe Requin. Paris, 1891. Les Origines de f Imprimerie h 
 Avignon. Par M. Duhamel. 1890. 
 
 78
 
 France 79 
 
 bendi pertinentes.' Waldfoghel was evidently the 
 maker of the materials and the teacher of the art, 
 and he seems to have supplied his apprentices with 
 such tools as would enable them to print for them- 
 selves. 
 
 In 1444, besides Manaudus Vitalis, Waldfoghel 
 had as apprentices, Girardus Ferrose of Treves, 
 Georgius de la Jardina, Arnaldus de Cosselhac, and 
 a Jew named Davinus de Cadarossia. 
 
 From a document dated loth March 1446, we learn 
 that Waldfoghel, having two years previously taught 
 the art of printing to the Jew, had promised to cut 
 for him a set of twenty-seven Hebrew letters and to 
 give him certain other materials. In return for this, 
 the Jew was to teach him to dye in a particular way 
 all kinds of textile material, and to keep secret all he 
 learnt on the art of printing. 
 
 In another document, of 5th April 1446, relating to 
 the partnership of Waldfoghel, Manaudus Vitalis, and 
 Arnaldus de Cosselhac, and the selling of his share to 
 the remaining two by Vitalis, we have mention made 
 of ' nonnulla instrumenta sive artificia causa artifici- 
 aliter scribendi, tarn de ferro, de callibe, de cupro, de 
 lethono, de plumbo, de stagno et de fuste.' 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that these various 
 entries refer to printing with movable types ; they 
 cannot refer to xylographic printing, nor to stencil- 
 ling. At the same time, there is no evidence to point 
 to any particular kind of printing ; and the various 
 materials mentioned would rather make it appear
 
 8o Early Printed Books 
 
 that the Avignon invention was some method of 
 stamping letters or words from cut type, than print- 
 ing from cast type in a press. Until some specimen 
 is found of this Avignon work, from which some 
 definite knowledge can be obtained, the ^question 
 must be left undecided, for it is useless to try to 
 extract from words capable of various renderings any 
 exact meaning. Our information at present is only 
 sufficient to enable us to say that some kind of print- 
 ing was being practised at Avignon as early as 1444. 
 It seems, too, impossible that, had this invention been 
 printing of the ordinary kind, nothing more should 
 have come of the experiment; and we know of no 
 printing in France before 1470. 
 
 Les neuf Preux, the only block-book executed in 
 France, has been already noticed. It is considered to 
 have been printed at Paris about 1455. 
 
 The first printing press was naturally started at 
 Paris, the great centre of learning and culture, and it 
 seems strange that so important an invention should 
 not have been introduced earlier than 1470. Many 
 specimens of the art had been seen, for Fust in 1466 
 and Schceffer in 1468 had visited the capital to sell 
 their books. If we may believe the manuscript 
 preserved in the library of the Arsenal, the French 
 King, in October 1458, sent out Nicholas Jenson to 
 learn the art ; but he, ' on his return to France, find- 
 ing Charles VII. dead, set up his establishment 
 elsewhere.' Probably a strong antagonism to the 
 new art would be shown by the immense number of
 
 France 8 1 
 
 professional copyists and scribes who gained their 
 livelihood in connection with the university, though 
 the demand for manuscripts continued in France for 
 some time after the introduction of printing. Many 
 of the wealthy, moreover, refused to recognise the 
 innovation, and admitted no printed book into their 
 libraries, so that the scribes were not at once deprived 
 of employment. Many of these men who had been 
 employed in producing manuscripts, soon turned to 
 the new art as a means of employment, becoming 
 themselves printers, or assisting in the production of 
 books, as rubricators or illuminators. 
 
 In 1470, thanks to the exertions of Jean Heynlyn 
 and Guillaume Fichet, both men of high position in 
 the University of Paris, a printing press was set up 
 in the precincts of the Sorbonne by three Germans, 
 Martin Crantz, Ulrich Gering of Constance, and 
 Michael Friburger of Colmar. The first book they 
 issued was Gasparini Pergamensis Epistolarum Opus y 
 a quarto of 118 leaves, with a prefatory letter to 
 Heynlyn, which fixes the date of its production in 
 1470, and an interesting colophon 
 
 1 Ut sol lumen, sic doctrinam fundis in orbem, 
 
 Musarum nutrix, regia Parisius. 
 Hinc prope divinam, tu, quam Germania novit, 
 
 Artem scribendi suscipe promerita. 
 Primes ecce libros quos haec industria finxit 
 
 Francorum in terris, asdibus atque tuis. 
 Michael, Udalricus Martinusque magistri 
 
 Hos impresserunt ac facient alios.' 
 
 The classical taste of the patrons of the first press 
 F
 
 82 Early Printed Books 
 
 is strongly shown by its productions, for within the 
 first three years a most important series of classical 
 books had been published. Florus and Sallust (both 
 first editions), Terence^ Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, 
 Juvenal and Persius, Cicero's Tusculan Disputations^ 
 and Valerius Maximus, are amongst the books they 
 issued. 
 
 In 1470-71 these printers finished thirteen books, 
 while in the following year, before moving from the 
 Sorbonne, they printed no less than seventeen. 
 Some time towards the end of 1472 they left the 
 Sorbonne and migrated to the Rue St. Jacques, 
 where two other printers Kaiser and Stoll were 
 already settled in partnership at the sign of the 
 Green Ball (Intersignium viridis follis). 
 
 In 1472 was issued the Gasparini Orthographia. 
 The copy of this book in the library at Basle con- 
 tains a unique supplementary letter from Fichet to 
 Robert Gaguin, in which is the following interest- 
 ing statement about the invention of printing: 
 ' Report says that there (in Germany), not far from 
 the city of Mainz (Ferunt enim illic, haud procul 
 a civitate Maguncia), there was a certain John, whose 
 surname was Gutenberg, who first of any thought 
 out the art of printing ... by which art books are 
 printed from metal letters.' 1 
 
 1 Mr. Hessels, in his Haarlem the Birthplace of Printing, not Mentz, 
 attempts to weaken the value of this evidence, and translates ' ferunt 
 enim illic' as 'a rumour current in Germany,' a striking example of 
 ingenious mistranslation. ' Illic ' is, of course, to be taken with what 
 follows, and is further defined by 'haud procul a civitate Maguncia.'
 
 Gaf parint pcrgamcnfis clanfftmt orato' 
 uf/cpiftolay liber foelioter incipit/ 
 
 Audieo plttttraum ac lator in 
 ca tc fcntentia effect ntbil a 
 me fieri fine cauf a putetEgo 
 cm etfi multoi^ uerebac fufpi 
 tionef j(j> a me fempromu antiquu Fami// 
 Uate mcQ rcikicb3*tamc cu ad inctedibt' 
 le animi tui fapietiS iudiciu tneu referee 
 ba ' nibil etat qrc id a tc improban pa> 
 t4temNam cum d meof noffcf mocef/d 
 illius natura n ignotares* n dubitaba ^d 
 de hoc fafto meo ludtcaturus rffcs* Non 
 igit baf ad tc fcctbo Irif ^quo nottam tibi 
 dc rcbuf a me gefttf opitiionem facia^fed 
 ut ft quando aliter homiet noftcof dc me 
 fetirc intelligcs* tu g probe caufam mca 
 noftiydefcnf tone mea Cufciptaf *Hasc ft fe/ 
 certs* nihil eft quo ulterius officium tu^ 
 wm requi tarn* Vale ; 
 
 PAGE OF FIRST PARIS BOOK.
 
 France 83 
 
 Between the two printing offices in the Rue St. 
 Jacques a keen spirit of rivalry arose ; and this was 
 carried to such an extent, that no sooner was a book 
 printed by one than another edition was issued by 
 the other, a sign that the demand for such books 
 must have been large. The earliest type used by 
 these first printers is an exquisite Roman, the 
 letters being more square than the best Roman type 
 of Venice, and far surpassing it in beauty. Round 
 brackets are used, and all the generally used stops 
 are found. The first type of Kaiser and Stoll is 
 also Roman, with neat and very distinctive capitals, 
 and the small / has a short stroke coming out on the 
 left side about half-way up, a peculiarity still retained 
 in all the Roman type belonging to the 'Imprimerie 
 Nationale.' The popular taste seems to have been 
 for Gothic type, and very few printers made use of 
 Roman before the year 1 500. 
 
 About 1478, Gering's two partners, Crantz and 
 Friburger, left him ; but he himself continued to pffnt 
 on for many years. About this date, too, the char- 
 acter of the books issued from the Paris presses 
 began entirely to change. In 1477, Pasquier Bon- 
 homme had issued the first French book printed in 
 that city, the Grandes Chroniques de France, and 
 from this time forward classical books were neglected, 
 and nothing printed but romances and chronicles, 
 service-books and grammars, and such books as were 
 in popular demand. During the twelve or fourteen 
 years after the first French book appeared, not one
 
 84 Early Printed Books 
 
 classical book a year was issued ; and it was not till 
 1495, the year of Charles VIII.'s return from Italy, 
 that the printing of classical books began to revive 
 and increase. 
 
 In 1485, Antoine Verard, the most important figure 
 in the early history of Parisian printing, begins his 
 career with an edition of the Decameron. He was, 
 however, more of a publisher than a printer, the 
 majority of the books which contain his name having 
 been printed for him by other printers. From his 
 establishment came numberless editions of chronicles 
 and romances, some copies of which were printed on 
 vellum and illuminated. A very fine series of such 
 books is now in the British Museum ; these were 
 originally bought by Henry VII., and formed part of 
 the old Royal Library. 
 
 Among the more important printers who printed 
 before 1490 should be mentioned Guy Marchant, 
 Jean du Pr, Guillaume le Fevre, Antoine Cayllaut, 
 Pierre Levet, Pierre le Rouge, and Jean Higman. 
 Levet is especially interesting, for the type which 
 came into Caxton's hands about 1490, and was used 
 afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde in some of his 
 earlier books, was either obtained from him or from 
 the type-cutter who cut his type, for the two founts 
 seem to be identical. Guy Marchant is celebrated 
 as the printer of some curious editions of the Dance 
 of Death. 
 
 After 1490 the number of printers and stationers 
 increased rapidly. Panzer enumerates no fewer than
 
 France 85 
 
 eighty-five printers, and nearly 800 books executed 
 during the fifteenth century ; and there is no doubt 
 that his estimate is considerably under the mark. 
 The most important productions of the Parisian press 
 at that time were service-books, of which enormous 
 numbers were issued. The best known publisher 
 of such works was Simon Vostre, who, with the 
 assistance of the printer Philip Pigouchet, began 
 to issue Books of Hours, printed on vellum, with 
 exquisite borders and illustrations. These books 
 began to be issued about 1488, and commence with an 
 almanac for the years 1488 to 1508. In many cases 
 the printers did not take the trouble to make new 
 almanacs, but were content to copy the old ; indeed, 
 we find the same almanac in use ten years later. 
 This has led to a great deal of confusion in the 
 bibliography of the subject, for it is a common 
 custom of librarians and cataloguers to ascribe the 
 printing of a book of this class to the date which 
 occurs first in the almanac, when there is no date 
 given in the colophon. The most celebrated pub- 
 lishers of these books were Simon Vostre, Philippe 
 Pigouchet, Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, Gilles 
 Hardouyn, Guillaume Eustace, Guillaume Godard, 
 and Frangois Regnault. Vostre and Verard do not 
 seem themselves to have printed, but were merely 
 publishers, far the most important printer being 
 Pigouchet. Of the nine or ten Books of Hours for 
 the use of Sarum, printed abroad during the 
 fifteenth century, Pigouchet probably printed half,
 
 86 Early Printed Books 
 
 and all but two were printed in Paris. In examining 
 early foreign -printed English service-books, it is 
 curious to notice that while nearly all the Horcz 
 were printed at Paris, the majority of Breviaries 
 were printed at Venice, and only two at Paris. No 
 Horcs is known to have been printed at Venice. 
 
 The end of the century saw the commencement of 
 the celebrated Ascensian press, the rival in some 
 ways of the Aldine. The founder, Jodocus Badius 
 Ascensius (Josse Bade of Asch), was a man of great 
 learning, and was for a time professor of humanity 
 at Lyons, and press-corrector to Trechsel, whose 
 daughter he married. Trechsel died in 1498, and in 
 1499, a t * ne invitation of Robert Gaguin, Badius 
 came to Paris and established himself there as a 
 teacher of Greek and a printer. It was not, however, 
 till 1 504 that the Ascensian press became important. 
 
 It is curious to notice that, in spite of the classical 
 tastes of the first promoters of printing in Paris, and 
 the enormous development of printing in that city 
 towards the end of the fifteenth century,' no Greek 
 book was produced till 1507. Through the exertions 
 of Frangois Tissard of Amboise, who had studied 
 Greek in Italy, and was anxious to introduce Greek 
 learning into France, Gilles Gourmont set up a press 
 provided with Greek types, and issued in 1507 a book 
 entitled /St^Xo? 77 <yvo}fj,ayvpiKij, a small grammatical 
 treatise, the first Greek book printed in France. 
 From the same press, in the year following, came the 
 first Hebrew book printed in Fiance, a Hebrew gram-
 
 France 87 
 
 mar, written by Tissard. Greek printing, however, 
 did not flourish ; the supply of type was meagre and 
 the demand for books small, 1 and it was not till 1528, 
 in which year Sophocles, Aristophanes, Lucian^ and 
 Demosthenes were issued, that any signs of a revival 
 were to be seen. 
 
 Lyons was the second city in France to receive the 
 art of printing, and it was introduced into that town 
 by Guillaume le Roy of Liege soon after 1470. The 
 first dated book, the Compendium of Innocent III., 
 appeared in September 1473. From its colophon we 
 learn that it was printed at the expense of Bartholo- 
 mieu Buyer, a citizen of Lyons ; and we know from 
 other colophons that the press was set up in Buyer's 
 house. Bernard doubts whether Buyer was himself 
 a printer, though he is certainly mentioned as such 
 in several books, such as La legende dore"e of 1476, 
 Le miroir de vie Jiumaine, and La legende des saints 
 of 1477, which are described in their colophons 
 as 'imprimes par Bartholomieu Buyer.' His name 
 is not found in any book after 1483, so that it is 
 usually supposed that he died about that date. Le 
 Roy continued to print alone for some years, but 
 had ceased before 1493, in which year we know that 
 he was still alive. 
 
 After Lyons comes Toulouse ; and the first dated 
 book issued there was the Repetitio solemnis rubrice 
 
 1 Aleander in 1512, in the preface to his lexicon Graco-Latinum, 
 complained that the stock of Greek type was so meagre, that some- 
 times letters had to be left out here and there, and the work was often 
 at a standstill for days.
 
 88 Early Printed Books 
 
 de fide instrumentonim, 2Oth June 1476. It was not 
 till 14/9 that a printer's name appears in the colophon 
 to a work by Johannes Alphonsus de Benevento. 
 The printer, Jean Parix, was a native of Heidelberg. 
 He had founts both of Gothic and Roman type, the 
 Gothic being especially remarkable for the shapes of 
 the letters, which are very distinctive, and though 
 eccentric in form they are not at all unpleasing in 
 appearance. In 1488, Henry Mayer began to print, 
 issuing in that year a translation of the De consola- 
 tione philosophies of Boethius, ' en romance,' and the 
 first French translation of the Imitatio Christi. This 
 Henry Mayer has often been quoted as the first 
 printer at Tolosa in Spain, owing to the name Tolosa 
 in the colophons being considered to stand for that 
 town, and not, as it really does, for Toulouse. M. 
 Claudin, however, has found in the town registers of 
 Toulouse a mention of Henry Mayer as a printer in 
 1488 ; and in the imprint of the Boethius which he 
 printed in the same year it is distinctly stated that 
 it was ' impresso en Tolosa de Francia.' At the end 
 of the Cronica de Espafia, printed by Mayer in 1489, 
 is a long peroration addressed to Queen Isabella as 
 his sovereign by Mayer, from which it is sometimes 
 argued that the book was printed in Spain. The 
 real fact is that the book is an exact reprint, perora- 
 tion and all, of the edition printed at Seville in 1482 
 by Dachaver, with the sole difference that Mayer has 
 substituted his name for that of the Spanish printer. 
 Angers [Feb. 5, 1476-77], Chablis [April I, 1478],
 
 France 89 
 
 Vienne [1478], and Poitiers [1479], are the four 
 remaining towns into which printing was introduced 
 before 1480. The first book issued at Angers, printed 
 by Johannes de Turre and Morelli, is an edition of 
 Cicero's RJutorica Nova, printed in a curious Roman 
 type, apparently copied from that used by Kaiser and 
 Stoll at Paris. The first printer at Chablis was Pierre 
 le Rouge ; but some time after 1483 he removed to 
 Paris, and his place was taken by Guillaume le Rouge, 
 who moved about 1492 to Troyes, and finally also 
 settled in Paris. Johannes Solidi and Peter Schenck 
 are the two most important of the early printers at 
 Vienne. Solidi was the first; but Schenck, who began 
 in 1481, printed the most interesting books, and 
 always in French. Two of these are of great rarity, 
 L' Abuse en court and Le hystoire de Griseldis. The 
 first book printed at Poitiers, the Bremarium His- 
 toriale, 1479, has no printer's name, nor indeed have 
 any of the earlier books. Hain [*i 3,811] gives a 
 book, Casus longi super sextum decretalium, printed 
 by John and Stephen de Gradibus in 1483. The 
 discovery of some fragments of Heures a V usage de 
 reglise d 1 Angers^ with the names of the printers, Jean 
 Bouyer et Pierre Bellesculle'e, printed partly in the 
 types of the first books, make it possible that these 
 two may have been the printers. The fragments 
 were found in the binding of a book by M. Delisle. 
 
 Caen was the first town in Normandy where 
 printing was practised, but only one book was printed 
 there in the fifteenth century. It is an edition of
 
 90 Early Printed Books 
 
 Horace, the first to appear in France, and of the very 
 greatest rarity, only three copies being known, one of 
 which, printed on vellum, is in the Spencer Library. 
 The printers were Jacobus Durandas and Egidius 
 Quijoue, and the book was issued 6th June 1480. 
 It is a quarto of forty leaves, with twenty lines to the 
 page, printed in a good, bold Gothic type. There 
 were several privileged booksellers attached to the 
 University of Caen, but it is improbable that any of 
 them printed, at any rate in the fifteenth century. 
 They obtained their books from either Paris or Rouen. 
 
 Within the next seven years ten towns set up 
 presses in the following order: Albi (1481), Chartres 
 (1482), Metz (1482), Troyes (1483), Chambe'ry (1484), 
 Brehant - Loude"ac (1484), Rennes (1484), Tr^guier 
 (1485), Salins (1485), Abbeville (1486). 
 
 At Albi, on I7th November 1481, the wonderful 
 edition of the Meditationes of Turrecremata, supposed 
 to have been printed by Numeister, was issued. This 
 was preceded by a book of ^Eneas Sylvius^ without 
 date, but ascribed to the same printer, though printed 
 with a different type ; and Hain [8723] quotes a third 
 book, also without date, Historia septem sapientum. 
 The arguments of M. Claudin, who has written a 
 book to prove that Numeister was the printer at Albi, 
 though ingenious, are very far from conclusive. 
 
 Two books were executed at Chartres in the 
 fifteenth century, a Missal in 1482 and a Breviary 
 in 1483, both for the use of that diocese. The printer 
 was Jean du Pre" of Paris.
 
 France 9 1 
 
 The first printers at Metz, Johannes Colini and 
 Gerhardus de Novacivitate, who printed in 1482 an 
 edition of the Imitatio Christi, used a very peculiar 
 type of Gothic with a number of Roman capitals 
 mixed with it, resembling that of Nicholas Gotz at 
 Cologne, and which, leaving Cologne in 1480, appeared 
 at Treves in 1481. In 1499, Caspar Hochfeder came 
 to Metz from Nuremberg. 
 
 The earliest book with the name of Troyes in the 
 colophon is a Breviarium secundum usuni ecclesicz 
 Trecensis, of 25th September 1483. It was executed 
 by Pierre le Rouge, who probably came over from 
 Chablis for the purpose. In 1492, Guillaume le 
 Rouge, who had before this printed at Chablis, set 
 up the first permanent press in the town. 
 
 Bre'hant-Loude'ac was the first town in Brittany 
 where books were printed ; and from 1484 to 1485 
 the two printers, Robin Foucquet and Jean Cres, 
 issued ten books, all in French, in a ragged Gothic 
 type. The first printers at Abbeville, Jean du Pre* of 
 Paris and Pierre Gerard, to judge by their books, 
 were well-skilled workmen, for both the printing and 
 illustrations are very fine. Their first book was an 
 edition of the Somme Rurale, and it was followed by 
 a splendid edition, in two volumes, of La citf de Dieu 
 of Augustine, a large folio with wonderful woodcuts. 
 Their third work was Le Triomphe des neuf Preux ; 
 and this is the last book known to have been printed 
 at Abbeville in the fifteenth century. 
 
 Though Rouen was without a printer till 1487, it
 
 92 Early Printed Books 
 
 became within a very few years one of the most im- 
 portant towns in the history of French printing. Its 
 fortunate position on the Seine, equally advantageous 
 for sending books to Paris or exporting them to 
 England, was doubtless the chief cause of its great 
 prosperity, and its influence over the book trade was 
 felt, not only over all France, but over England as 
 well. The first printer was Guillaume le Talleur, and 
 his first book, Les Chroniques de Normandie, was pub- 
 lished in May 1487. He printed several law books for 
 Richard Pynson about 1490, and was very probably 
 his teacher. The most important export from Rouen 
 was certainly service-books, and of these endless 
 numbers were issued for various uses. Martin Morin, 
 who began to print in 1490, was especially connected 
 with this kind of work, and some of the most beauti- 
 ful of the Salisbury Missals are from his press. The 
 printers were, however, not nearly so numerous as 
 the booksellers, though it is not always very easy to 
 distinguish between them. Morin, Le Talleur, Noel 
 de Harsy, Jean le Bourgeois, and Jacques le Fore- 
 stier, may safely be given as printers ; others, like 
 Richard and Regnault, were probably only book- 
 sellers or stationers. Besangon also had a printing 
 press in 1487, but who the first printer was is not 
 very certainly known. Several writers consider him to 
 have been Jean du Pre* ; but M. Thierry- Poux, judg- 
 ing from the types, considers that Peter Metlinger, 
 who printed later at D61e, is more likely to have been 
 the printer. In 1488 (26th March 1487), Jean Cres
 
 France 93 
 
 printed the first book at Lantenac, an edition in 
 French of Mandeville's Travels. Its colophon men- 
 tions no name of place, but the type and the printer's 
 name are identical with those of the Doctrinal des 
 nouvelles marines of 1491, which has the name of the 
 place, Lantenac, in the colophon. 
 
 Between 1490 and the end of 1500 printing was 
 introduced into twenty towns. In 1490, to Embrun, 
 Grenoble, and Dole ; but the first and second of these 
 places only produced a single book each. In 1491, 
 to Orleans, Goupillieres, Angouleme, Dijon, and 
 Narbonne. 
 
 M. Jarry 1 mentions a certain Jehan le Roy, who 
 was spoken of at Orleans in 1481 as a printer and 
 stationer, but nothing printed by him is known. 
 The first book known is a Manipulus Curatorum in 
 French, printed by Matthew Vivian. Our knowledge 
 of the existence of a press at Goupillieres in the 
 fifteenth century is the result of a fortunate dis- 
 covery made by M. Delisle. He found, used as 
 boards for an old binding, thirty-six leaves of a 
 book of Hours l d F usage du diocese d 'vreux,' with a 
 colophon stating that it was printed at Goupillieres 
 on the 8th May 1491, by Michel Andrieu, a priest. 
 At Narbonne also but one book was printed before 
 1 500, a Breviamm ad usum ecclesice Narbonensis. 
 
 In 1492, printing was introduced into Cluni ; and 
 in 1493, to Nantes, Chalons, Tours, and Macon. 
 Chalons and Macon are each represented by one 
 
 1 Les dtbuts de rimprinurie & Orleans. Orleans, 1884.
 
 94 Early Printed Books 
 
 book, which in each case is a Diurnale for the use of 
 its own church. 
 
 In 1495, Jean Berton began to print at Limoges, 
 issuing service-books for the use of the church. The 
 last six towns to be mentioned are Provins (1496), 
 Valence (1496), Avignon (1497), Pdrigueux (1498), 
 Perpignan ( 1500), and Valenciennes (1500). 
 
 Nothing seems to have resulted from the early 
 attempts at printing at Avignon, which have been 
 spoken of before, and the first dated book issued 
 there is an edition of part of Ludan, printed for 
 Nicholas Tepe, by Jean du Pre" of Lyons, on the i$th 
 October 1497. 
 
 It will be noticed that printing was introduced into 
 many of the provincial towns of France merely to 
 serve a temporary purpose, and not for the object 
 of permanent work. In many cases the printer was 
 brought to the town, probably at the request and 
 expense of the ecclesiastical authorities, to print such 
 service-books as were required for the use of the 
 church. For this reason we find printers and types 
 moving from place to place, so that it is not always 
 easy to assign a book to a particular town, when the 
 type in which it is printed was used in several places. 
 The splendid series of facsimiles edited by M. Thierry- 
 Poux, and published by order of the Government, 
 gives great assistance to the study of French typo- 
 graphy ; while from time to time small monographs 
 have appeared giving the history of printing in all the 
 more important towns of France,
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE LOW COUNTRIES. 
 
 ON no subject connected with printing has more 
 been written, and to less purpose, than on the Haarlem 
 invention of printing by Lourens Janszoon Coster. 
 During the fifteenth century much had been said 
 about the invention, accrediting it always to Germany; 
 and it was not till 1499 that a reference was made to 
 an earlier Dutch discovery in the following passage 
 of the Cologne Chronicle : J 
 
 * This highly valuable art was discovered first of all in Germany, at 
 Mentz on the Rhine. And it is a great honour to the German nation 
 that such ingenious men are found among them. And it took place 
 about the year of our Lord 1440 ; and from this time until the year 
 1450, the art and what is connected with it was being investigated. 
 And in the year of our Lord 1450 it was a golden year [jubilee], and 
 they began to print, and the first book they printed was the Bible in 
 Latin ; it was printed in a large letter, resembling the letter with 
 which at present missals are printed. Although the art [as has been 
 said] was discovered at Mentz, in the manner as it is now generally 
 used, yet the first prefiguration was found in Holland [the Netherlands], 
 in the Donatuses, which were printed there before that time. And 
 from these Donatuses the beginning of the said art was taken, and it 
 was invented in a manner much more masterly and subtile than this, 
 
 1 The Haarlem Legend, by Dr. Van der Linde, translated by J. H. 
 Hessels. London, 1871, 8vo, p. 8. 
 
 95
 
 96 Early Printed Books 
 
 and became more and more ingenious. One named Omnibonus wrote 
 in a preface to the book called Quinctiliamts, and in some other books 
 too, that a Walloon from France, named Nicol. Jenson, discovered 
 first of all this masterly art ; but that is untrue, for there are those still 
 alive who testify that books were printed at Venice before Nicol. 
 Jenson came there and began to cut and make letters. But the first 
 inventor of printing was a citizen of Mentz, born at Strasburg, and 
 named Junker Johan Gutenberg. From Mentz the art was introduced 
 first of all into Cologne, then into Strasburg, and afterwards into 
 Venice. The origin and progress of the art was told me verbally by 
 the honourable Master Ulrich Zell of Hanau, still printer at Cologne, 
 anno 1499, and by whom the said art came to Cologne.' 
 
 This narrative, it will be seen, breaks down, if we 
 examine its accuracy strictly, in several places. To 
 get over this apparent difficulty, we are told that the 
 compiler of the Chronicle took the various parts of 
 his statement from various sources. The statement 
 that printing was invented at Mainz, from Hartmann 
 Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 ; that from 
 1440 to 1450 it was being investigated, is an addition 
 of his own ; that about 1450 people began to print, 
 and that the first book printed was the Bible in Latin, 
 was told him by Ulric Zel, and so on. But evidence 
 which on certain points is inaccurate, cannot be 
 implicitly trusted on other points; and since it is 
 impossible to trust absolutely the statement of the 
 Chronicle, we must seek information from the best 
 source, that is, the earliest productions of the press. 
 
 Coster himself was not heard of as a printer till 
 about a hundred years after he was supposed to 
 have printed, when Junius wrote in his Batavia the 
 wonderful legend of the letters cut in beech bark.
 
 The Low Countries 97 
 
 That a person called Lourens Janszoon lived at 
 Haarlem from 1436 to 1483 seems to be an estab- 
 lished fact ; but, at the same time, all the entries and 
 notices relating to him show that he was a chandler 
 or innkeeper. Von der Linde very justly, therefore, 
 considers he was not a printer ; and this view is 
 certainly reasonable, for we can hardly suppose that 
 a man could have printed all the so-called Costeriana 
 and at the same time have attended to his business so 
 carefully, that all the entries which relate to him 
 speak of him only as an innkeeper, and no mention 
 of any kind is made of him as a printer, though he 
 was, so believers in him assert, the only printer in 
 Holland for thirty years. 
 
 Coming to the books themselves, what do we find ? 
 The first printed date is 1473, in which year books 
 were issued at both Utrecht and Alost. M. Holtrop 
 mentions that the Hague copy of the Tractatus 
 Gulielmi de Saliceto de salute carports et animcs and 
 Yliada was bought by a certain Abbat Conrad for 
 the library of his house ; and as the Abbat in question 
 was Abbat only from 1471 to 1474, the book cannot 
 have been printed later than 1471-74; and this and 
 the rubricated 1472 in the Darmstadt copy of the 
 Saliceto are at present the only dates which we can 
 use for our purposes. 
 
 There are, however, a large number of fragments of 
 books known, printed in a rude type and with the 
 appearance of early printing, all of which are fre- 
 quently asserted to have been printed before 1473.
 
 98 Early Printed Books 
 
 These books, consisting for the most part of editions 
 of the Donatus or the Doctrinale, are known by the 
 name of Costeriana, as being the supposed produc- 
 tions of Coster. Among them also are the four 
 editions of the Speculum, which we have examined 
 at length in Chapter I. Fragments of at least fifty 
 books or editions are known, which may be separated 
 by their types into eight groups. Concerning the 
 types Mr. Hessels says : ' Type 2 is inseparably con- 
 nected with type I ; and as the former is so much 
 like type 3 that some consider these two types 
 identical, nothing would be gained by separating 
 them. Type 4 and 5 occur in one and the same 
 book; and as certain letters of type 5 are identical 
 with some of type 3, they may all be linked together. 
 Type 6 is identical with type 5 except the P, which 
 is larger and of a different form. Types 7 and 8 are 
 linked on to the types 1-6, on account of the great 
 family-likeness between them, they all having that 
 peculiar perpendicular stroke to the cross-bar of the /, 
 and a down stroke or curl attached to the r, which 
 is found in no other types of the Netherlands.' 
 
 The close connection of all these types points to 
 the books having been produced in one place ; but 
 where this one place was, cannot be determined. 
 The account written by Junius, in 1568, of the in- 
 vention of printing by Coster, mentions Haarlem as 
 the place where he printed, and they have therefore 
 been always ascribed to Haarlem by such writers as 
 believe in the Costerian invention. Mr. Bradshaw,
 
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 PAGE OF A "DOCTRINALE." 
 
 Oiwr of tkt so-called " Costeriana")
 
 The Low Countries 99 
 
 who refused to assign books to particular places 
 without reason, said : ' I am compelled to leave the 
 Speculum at Utrecht until I know anything positive 
 to the contrary, because it is at Utrecht that the cuts 
 first appear, cut up into pieces in a book printed by 
 Veldener at that place in 1481.' This statement does 
 not mean that the Costeriana were necessarily printed 
 at Utrecht, but that the place where we find the 
 materials as soon as they can be connected with 
 any place, is Utrecht, and that therefore such little 
 evidence as exists is in favour of these books having 
 been printed there. One point which tells in favour 
 of Utrecht, is the fact that one of the Costeriana is a 
 Donatus in French, and Utrecht is one of the few 
 places in the Netherlands where such a book is likely 
 to have been produced. 
 
 There is no direct evidence in favour of Haarlem 
 or Utrecht ; and indirect evidence is not particularly 
 in favour of Haarlem, unless it is considered that 
 some belief may be placed in Junius' wonderful 
 narrative. It is certainly wiser to leave the matter 
 open, or, with Bradshaw, place the books provisionally 
 at Utrecht till we have a better reason for placing 
 them elsewhere. 
 
 The more important question as to the date when 
 these Costeriana were produced, seems still as far as 
 ever from any satisfactory solution. Mr. Hessels 
 takes them back to 1446 by the ingenious method of 
 putting eighteen months between each edition. This 
 method of working is based on no sound prin-
 
 ioo Early Printed Books 
 
 ciple, and leads to no result of any value. Another 
 argument of Mr. Hessels, and one that is hardly 
 worthy of so learned a writer, is that since the Cos- 
 teriana look older than the first Mainz books, there- 
 fore they are older. The foolishness of this reasoning 
 is too apparent to need any explanation, for it 
 amounts to the assertion that the same phase of 
 development in different countries means the same 
 date. But if the earliest dated books of the Low 
 Countries are compared with the productions of 
 Germany, it needs a prejudiced eye to see in the 
 former any approach to the exquisite beauty and 
 regularity of the German type and printing. 
 
 There is one point which seems to me to argue 
 strongly against the early date ascribed to the Cos- 
 teriana. They were produced by ordinary typo- 
 graphic processes, such as would be used for printing 
 any book, and there is little or no improvement 
 observable in the latest compared with the earliest. 
 Yet, during the thirty years to which these books are 
 ascribed, no work of any size or importance was pro- 
 duced from this press. It can hardly be assumed 
 that during these years there was no demand for 
 books, when we consider that immediately after 1473 
 books of all kinds were produced in great number. 
 Nor can we reasonably suppose that the great demand 
 for the Donatus and the Doctrinale ceased about 
 1473. The printing of school-books did not require 
 to be ornamental, for they had to be produced as 
 cheaply as possible, so that this class of work naturally
 
 The Low Countries 101 
 
 soon fell into the hands of the poorer printers. We 
 see many examples of this in studying the history of 
 printing in other places, and find the finest and the 
 rudest work being produced side by side. Block- 
 books and xylographic Donatuses were printed in 
 Germany up to the last years of the fifteenth century, 
 as old in appearance as the productions of fifty years 
 earlier. We may connect certain of these Costeriana 
 with the years 1471-74, within which period printing 
 presses were started at Utrecht and Alost ; but why 
 should all the rest be placed earlier? It is curious 
 that, while we have no dates forcing us to fix them 
 early, neither have we dates preventing us from fixing 
 them late. 
 
 Because certain of these books were written by 
 Pius II., who became Pope in 1458, Mr. Hessels seizes 
 on 1458 as one of the dates we may take as relating 
 to their printing, and groups the Costeriana round 
 that date. He might equally well have grouped 
 others round the fourth century, when ^Elius Donatus 
 lived, or round 1207, when Alexander de Villa Dei 
 finished his Doctrinale. The only date as regards the 
 printing of a book that can be derived from the 
 authorship is a date before which the book cannot 
 have been printed. M. Dziatzko mentions one point 
 which he considers conclusive as giving a late date to 
 the Costeriana. In them is wrongly used a particular 
 form of the letter x, which is not found in Dutch 
 manuscripts, and which was used at the first Mainz 
 press for a special purpose. 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 1 02 Early Printed Books 
 
 Putting aside, then, the useless mass of conjecture 
 and sophistry that obscures the subject, the case 
 stands thus. The first printed date in the Low 
 Countries is 1473, and there are a group of undated 
 books which may perhaps be placed before or 
 round this date ; beyond this we have no information 
 whatever. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, it is worth noticing that 
 there is a simple explanation for the fact that almost 
 all the Costeriana fragments are on vellum. They 
 have in most cases been found in the bindings of 
 books, and it was the almost invariable habit of 
 Netherlandish binders to line the boards of their 
 bindings with vellum. They used if possible clean 
 vellum, or printed or written only on one side, the 
 used side being pasted down and the clean side 
 exposed. In this way many indulgences have been 
 preserved. 
 
 In 1473, printing starts simultaneously at Utrecht 
 and Alost, and from that time onward its history is 
 clear. More attention has been paid to the history 
 of printing in the Netherlands than to that of any 
 other country, and the work of Holtrop, Campbell > 
 and Bradshaw offers a firm foundation to rest upon. 
 
 The first printers at Utrecht were Nicholas Ketelaer 
 and Gerard de Leempt, and their first book was the 
 Historia Scholastica of Petrus Comestor. Though 
 they printed a large number of books, only three are 
 dated, two in 1473 and one in 1474. About 1475 a 
 printer named William Hees printed some books at
 
 The Low Countries 103 
 
 Utrecht ; and in 1478, Veldener moved to that town 
 from Louvain, where he had been printing up to that 
 time. 
 
 The first printer at Alost was Thierry Martens, an 
 accomplished linguist and scholar, who is supposed 
 by many bibliographers to have learned to print at 
 Venice. He says in the colophon to the De vita beata 
 libellns of Baptista Mantuanus 
 
 'Hoc opus impressi Martins Theodoricus Alosti, 
 Qui Venetum scita Flandrensibus affero cuncta." 
 
 On this basis the story has arisen, and it is perhaps 
 hardly sufficient to justify the conclusions. The first 
 books, four in number, printed in 1473 and the begin- 
 ning of 1474, were printed in partnership with John 
 of Westphalia, a printer who in 1474 migrated to 
 Louvain. Thierry Martens continued by himself at 
 Alost for a while, but moved on, in 1493, to Antwerp, 
 and in 1498 to Louvain. According to Van der 
 Meersch, he left Louvain in 1502 to return to Ant- 
 werp, but left this town again in 1512, and settled 
 definitely at Louvain till the end of his career in 
 1529. 
 
 Printing was introduced at Louvain in 1474, and it 
 is, after Antwerp, the most important town in that 
 respect in the Low Countries. The first printer was 
 John of Westphalia, 1 whom we have just mentioned 
 as a printer at Alost in partnership with Thierry 
 
 1 John de Paderborn de Westphalia was in 1473 still a scribe, for in 
 that year he wrote a MS. of the Scala of Johannes Climacus at and for 
 the Augustinian House at Marpach.
 
 IO4 Early Printed Books 
 
 Martens. He seems to have been the owner of the 
 type used at Alost, for he continued to print with 
 it, and in June 1474 issued the Commentariolus de 
 pleuresi by Antonius Guainerius, the first book 
 known to have been issued at Louvain. John of 
 Westphalia continued to print up to the year 1496 ; 
 and Campbell 1 enumerates over one hundred and 
 eighty books as having been printed by him in 
 these twenty-two years. In some of his books we 
 find a small woodcut portrait of himself, used first 
 in thefustiman of 1475 ; and a few of his books have 
 the red initial letters printed in by hand. John 
 Veldener, the second printer at Louvain, was matricu- 
 lated at the university there, in the faculty of medicine, 
 3<Dth July 1473. His first book was probably the 
 Consolatio peccatomm of Jacobus de Theramo, which 
 contains a prefatory letter, addressed 'Johanni 
 Veldener artis impressoriae magistro,' dated 7th Aug. 
 1474. Veldener continued to print at Louvain till 
 1478, and he is found in that year at Utrecht, where 
 he printed till 1481. After this he moved to Kuilen- 
 burg, issuing books there in 1483 and 1484. 
 
 Besides those that have been mentioned, seven 
 other printers worked at Louvain before the close of 
 the fifteenth century. These were Conrad Braem 
 (1475), Conrad de Westphalia (1476), Hermann de 
 Nassou (1483), Rodolphe Loeffs (1483), Egidius 
 vander Heerstraten (1484), Ludovicus de Ravescot 
 (1487), and Thierry Martens (1498). 
 
 1 Annales etc la Typographic Nterlandaise att xv. Sihle. 1874. 8vo.
 
 The Low Countries 105 
 
 Bruges, one of the most prosperous and artistic of 
 the towns in the Netherlands, is intimately associated 
 with the history of English printing ; for it was there 
 that our first printer, Caxton, began to print. It was 
 not, however, a productive town as regards printing, 
 for only two printers, or at most three, were at work 
 there in the fifteenth century. Of these the most 
 important was Colard Mansion. He was by profes- 
 sion a writer and illuminator of manuscripts, and his 
 name is found year by year from 1454 to 1473 in the 
 book of the Guild of St. John. It was probably about 
 1475 that he began to print ; but his first dated book 
 appeared in the following year. About the years 
 1475-77, Caxton was in partnership with Mansion, 
 whether generally or only for the production of 
 certain books, we do not know. But together they 
 printed three books, The Recuy ell of the Histories of 
 Troye, The Game and playe of the Chesse, and Les 
 quatre derrennieres choses. After Caxton's departure, 
 in 1477, Mansion continued to print by himself. 
 It is worth noticing that in 1477 he first made use 
 of a device. The first dated book issued by 
 Mansion, De la ruyne des nobles homines et femmes, 
 by Boccaccio, has a curious history. It was issued 
 first without any woodcuts, and no spaces were left 
 for them. Then the first leaf containing the prologue 
 was cancelled, and reprinted so as to leave a space 
 for a cut of the author presenting his book. At a 
 later date, the first leaves of all the books, excepting 
 books i. and vi., were cancelled, and reissued with
 
 1 06 Early Printed Books 
 
 spaces for engravings. Mansion printed altogether 
 about twenty-four books, the last being a moralised 
 version of Ovid's Metamorphoses ; issued in May 1484. 
 Almost immediately after this book was finished, the 
 printer fled from Bruges, and his rooms over the 
 porch of the Church of St. Donatus were let to a book- 
 binder named Jean Gossin. This latter paid the rent 
 still owing by Mansion, and is supposed to have come 
 into possession of the stock of the Ovid, for several 
 copies of the book are known in which the leaves 
 113-218, 296-389 have been reprinted, presumably 
 by Gossin, and these examples do not contain 
 Mansion's device. 
 
 The other printer, Jean Brito, is little more than a 
 name. Campbell gives four books as having been 
 printed by him, but only one contains his name. 
 This, however, is a book of exceptional interest, the 
 Instruction et doctrine de tous Chretiens et chre'tiennes, 
 by Gerson ; and but one copy is known, now in the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale. It has the following curious 
 colophon in verse : 
 
 ' Aspice presentis scripture gracia que sit 
 Confer opus opere, spectetur cod ice codex. 
 Respice quam munde, quam terse quamque decore 
 Imprimit hec civis brugensis brito Johannes, 
 Inveniens artem nullo monstrante mirandam 
 Instruments quoque non minus laude stupenda.' 
 
 The last two lines, which, translated literally, say, 
 ' Discovering, without being shown by any one, the 
 wonderful art, and also the tools, not less objects for
 
 The Low Countries 107 
 
 wonder and praise,' would seem to imply that Brito 
 claimed to be a self-taught printer. That this may 
 have been the case is quite possible, and it is the only 
 reasonable interpretation to put upon the lines. They 
 suggest, however, still a further inference. The type 
 in which this book is printed seems to be identical 
 with that used afterwards by William de Machlinia 
 at Holborn, in London, and extraordinarily similar 
 to the type used by Veldener at Utrecht. If Brito 
 was a self-taught printer, who invented his own tools, 
 he must also have been a type-founder; and if so, 
 may very likely have supplied William de Machlinia 
 with his type. 
 
 After Bruges comes Brussels, where but one press 
 was established before 1500. This was set up by the 
 Brothers of the Common Life, who must have found 
 their old industry of copying manuscripts seriously 
 interfered with by the competition of the new art. 
 They therefore started a press at their house, called 
 ' Nazareth/ and in 1476 issued their first dated book, 
 the Gnotosolitos sive speculum conscientics, by Arnoldus 
 de Gheilhoven, a large folio of 472 leaves. From 1476 
 to 1484! they worked industriously, producing about 
 thirty-five books, only one of which clearly states 
 who and what the printers were. This is the Legenda 
 Henrici Imperatoris et Kunigundis Imperatricis of 
 1484, where we read in the colophon : . . . ' impresse 
 in famosa civitate bruxellensi per fratres com munis 
 
 1 A book of 1487 is quoted by Lambinet, but the date has probably 
 been either misprinted or misread.
 
 io8 Early Printed Books 
 
 vite in nazareth* . . . There is no doubt that, as 
 types come to be studied and recognised, more books 
 will be found printed by this Brotherhood. Other 
 establishments of the same Order had practised, or 
 were shortly to practise, the art of printing. That at 
 Marienthal, important in the history of printing, had 
 been at work for some years ; others at Rostock, 
 Nuremberg, and Gouda were to follow ; while, as we 
 have seen, if we are to believe M. Madden, the 
 monastery at Weidenbach was the instructor of all 
 the more noted printers of Europe. The similarity 
 in appearance between the Brussels type and that of 
 Ther Hoernen at Cologne is very striking, and has 
 deceived even M. Van der Meersch, Ther Hoernen's 
 bibliographer. The distinguishing mark of this type, 
 or the one most readily to be distinguished, is a very 
 voluminous capital S in the later books. 
 
 Gerard Leeu, the first printer at Gouda, is the 
 most important of all the Low Country printers of 
 the fifteenth century. His first book was issued in 
 1477, a Dutch edition of the Epistles and Gospels ; 
 and five other books followed in the same year. His 
 first illustrated book, the Dialogus creaturarum moral- 
 isatus, was issued in 1480. About the middle of the 
 year 1484 he removed to Antwerp, and printed there 
 till 1493. In that year, while the Chronicles of Eng- 
 land were being printed, a letter-cutter named Henric 
 van Symmen, one of Leeu's workmen, struck work. 
 In a quarrel which followed, Leeu was struck on the 
 head, and died after three days' illness. The work-
 
 The Low Countries 109 
 
 man who gave the blow was fined forty gulden, not 
 a very heavy punishment for manslaughter. At the 
 end of the Chronicles the workmen put the following 
 colophon : ' Enprentyd ... by maister Gerard de 
 Leew, a man of grete wysedom in all maner of 
 kunnying : whych nowe is come from lyfe unto the 
 deth, which is grete harme for many a poure man. 
 On whos sowle god almyghty for hys hygh grace 
 have mercy. Amen.' 
 
 Leeu must have employed a good deal of labour, 
 for he printed a very large number of books ; Camp- 
 bell gives about two hundred, and his numbers are 
 always being added to. But what makes Leeu 
 especially interesting to us is the fact of his printing 
 English books. Of these, he issued seven between 
 1486 and 1493 a Grammar, two Sarum Service- 
 books, and four other popular books which will be 
 noticed later. 
 
 Another interesting printer who was settled at 
 Gouda was Gotfried de Os, whom Bradshaw con- 
 siders to have been identical with Govaert van 
 Ghemen. He began to print at Gouda in 1486, 
 but about 1490 removed to Copenhagen, printing 
 at Leyden on his way. Before he went there he 
 parted with some of his printing materials, type, 
 initial letters, and woodcuts, which came into the 
 hands of W. de Worde, and were used in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Five other towns in the Netherlands possessed 
 printing presses before 1480 Deventer (1477), Delft
 
 no Early Printed Books 
 
 (1477), St. Maartensdyk (1478), Ny~megen (1479), and 
 Zwolle (1479). 
 
 At Deventer there were only two printers, R. 
 Paffroed and J. de Breda; but between them they 
 printed at least five hundred books, about a quarter 
 of the whole number issued in the Netherlands in the 
 fifteenth century. 
 
 At St. Maartensdyk in Zeeland only one book was 
 printed, Der zyelen troeste, the work of a printer 
 named Peter Werrecoren, in November 1478. Of this 
 book only one copy is known, preserved in the library 
 of the abbey of Averbode. In the colophon the 
 printer apologises for the short-comings of his book, 
 saying that it is his first, and that he hopes by the 
 grace of God to improve. We have, however, no 
 record of his ever printing again. Nymegen had also 
 but one printer, Gerard Leempt, who issued four 
 "books. Zwolle, where Peter van Os of Breda printed 
 from 1479 onwards, is an interesting place in the 
 history of printing, for there, in 1487, appeared por- 
 tions of the original blocks of the Biblia Pauperum 
 used to illustrate a Dutch edition of the Epistles and 
 Gospels, and in 1494 a block from the Canticum 
 Canticorum. Peregrinus Barmentlo, the only printer 
 at Hasselt, was at work from 1480 to 1490. He 
 seems to have had some connection with Peter van 
 Os, as was only natural from the situation of Hasselt 
 and its nearness to Zwolle ; and we find the cuts of 
 one printer in the hands of the other. 
 
 Arend de Keysere commenced to print at Auden-
 
 The Low Countries 1 1 1 
 
 arde in 1480, his first book being the Sermons of 
 Hermannus de Petra. By April 1483 he had moved 
 from Audenarde and settled at Ghent, where he 
 remained till his death in 1489. His wife, Beatrice 
 van Orrior, continued to print for a short time, but 
 no copy is known of any of her productions. At a 
 later date she married again, her husband being a 
 certain Henry van den Dale, who is mentioned in 
 the St. Lucas-gilde book at Bruges as a printer in 
 that town in 1505-6. 
 
 In the fifteenth century more printers were settled 
 in Antwerp than in any other Netherlandish town. 
 The first to settle there was Matthew van der 
 Goes, and his first book is dated 29th April 1482. 
 In the same year he issued the Back van Tondalus 
 vysioen, which has the misprinted date 1472, and 
 has for that reason been sometimes quoted as the 
 first book printed in the Low Countries, or more 
 often as the first book printed with signatures. 
 We have already spoken of Gerard Leeu, who was 
 the next to settle at Antwerp ; and shortly after 
 his appearance in 1484, Nicolas Kesler of Basle 
 opened a shop there for the sale of his books. There 
 are said to be three books with Kesler's name, and 
 the name of Antwerp given as the town ; and though 
 his press at Basle was at work without a break from 
 1486 onward, still in 1488 his name appears amongst 
 the list of members of the St. Lucas-gilde at Antwerp. 
 It is very probable, as Campbell suggests, that Kesler 
 was entered as a member to enable him to sell
 
 112 Early Printed Books 
 
 his books in Antwerp. The most interesting among 
 the remaining printers of the town was Thierry 
 Martens, who began to print in 1493, and stayed till 
 1497. His various movements have been spoken of 
 before. Leyden, Ghent, Kuilenburg, and Haarlem 
 all started presses in 1483. The first printer of 
 Haarlem, Bellaert, seems to have obtained his 
 materials for the most part from Leeu, both type and 
 woodcuts ; but the town cannot have been a flourish- 
 ing one from a printer's point of view; for, though 
 another workman, Joh: Andreae, printed a few books 
 in 1486, both presses disappear after that year. 
 At Bois-le-duc, Gerard Leempt, from Nymegen, 
 printed a few books between 1484 and 1490. In 
 1495 the Canons of St. Michael's in den Hem, near 
 Shoenhoven, began to print books in order to obtain 
 means to rebuild their convent, which had been 
 destroyed by fire the year before. They printed one 
 or two editions of the Breviary of different uses, but 
 the rest of their books were all in the vernacular. 
 Schiedam was the last town in the Netherlands 
 where printing was practised before 1 500, and there, 
 about 1498, an unknown printer issued a very remark- 
 able book. 
 
 There were altogether in the Netherlands twenty- 
 two towns whence books were issued before 1500, 
 and in this list it will be noticed that Haarlem stands 
 near the end. When printing had once been intro- 
 duced it spread rapidly, all but three towns starting 
 within the first ten years.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL DENMARK AND SWEDEN. 
 
 THE first book printed in Spain, according to 
 some authorities, is a small volume of poems by 
 Bernardo Fenollar and others, written in honour of 
 the Virgin on the occasion of a congress held at 
 Valentia in March 1474. It is said to have been 
 printed in that town in the same year ; but it has 
 never been fully described, nor is it known where a 
 copy is preserved. 
 
 According to M. Salva, the first two books printed 
 in Spain with a certain date are the Comprehensorium 
 (23rd February 1475), an d the Sallust (i3th July 
 1475), both printed at Valentia. As, however, the 
 year began on Easter Day, the second book is really 
 the earlier, and with it the authentic history of 
 printing in Spain begins. The book itself is a small 
 quarto, printed in Roman letter, without signatures 
 or catchwords, and but two copies seem to be 
 known, one in the Royal Library of Madrid, the 
 other in the Barberini Library at Rome. The printers 
 were Lambert Palmart, a German, and Alonzo 
 Fernandez of Cordova; but their names are found, 
 for the first time, in a Bible of 1478 known only from 
 
 H
 
 114 Early Printed Books 
 
 four leaves, one of them fortunately containing the 
 colophon. It is very probable that Alonzo Fernandez, 
 whose name only occurs in this one colophon, was 
 not a printer, though it is not known in what 
 capacity he was associated with Palmart. He was 
 certainly known as a celebrated astronomer. Lambert 
 Palmart continued to print at Valentia up to the 
 year 1494, and by that time other printers had 
 settled in the town. Jacobus de Villa is mentioned 
 by Panzer in 1493 and 1495 ; and in this latter year 
 we find also Peter Hagembach, who later on, at 
 Toledo, printed the celebrated Mozarabic Missal and 
 Breviary. 
 
 In 1475 a certain Matthaeus Flandrus printed an 
 edition of the Manipulus Curatorum at Saragossa. 
 He is supposed to have been a wandering printer, 
 and considered by some to be the Matthew Vendrell 
 who printed at Barcelona in 1482, and at Gerona in 
 1483. Between 1475 and 1485 no book is known 
 to have been printed at Saragossa ; but in the latter 
 year a press was started by Paul Hurus, a native of 
 Constance, who printed till almost the end of the 
 fifteenth century, and was followed by three Germans, 
 George Cock, Leonard Butz, and Lupus Appentegger. 
 
 Seville was the third city of Spain where printing 
 was practised, and the first dated book issued there 
 was the Sacramental of Clemente Sanchez de Vercial, 
 printed by three partners, Anton Martinez, Bartholome' 
 Segura, and Alphonso del Puerto, in 1477. An 
 undated edition of the same work is ascribed by
 
 Spain and Portugal 1 1 5 
 
 Mendez and others to an earlier date, and a third 
 edition was issued in May 1478. Another book, the 
 Manuale sen Repertorium super Abba tern Panormi- 
 tanum per Alphonsum Diaz de Montalvo, was issued 
 by the same printers in the same year. Hain 
 mentions sixteen printers who worked in Seville 
 during the fifteenth century ; and of these many were 
 Germans. 
 
 The first printers at Barcelona were Peter Brun 
 and Nicholas Spindeler, who issued, in 1478, two books 
 by Aquinas, commentaries on parts of Aristotle. 
 These are almost certainly the first two books printed 
 in that town, though a large number of supposititious 
 books, with dates from 1473 onwards, are quoted by 
 different writers. Amongst other printers who worked 
 at Barcelona may be mentioned John Rosembach of 
 Heidelberg, who paid visits to various towns, being 
 found at Tarragona in 1499, ano ^ at Perpignan in 
 1500. Another printer, Jaques de Gurniel, left 
 Barcelona about the end of the century and went to 
 Valladolid, where he printed during the first years 
 of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The first book printed at Lerida has a curious 
 history. It is a Breviary, according to the use of 
 the church at Lerida, printed by a German, Henry 
 Botel, in 1479, and the whole expense of its publica- 
 tion was undertaken by a certain Antonio Palares, 
 the bell-ringer of the church. It is an extremely 
 rare book ; but there is a copy of it in the Bodleian 
 Library, and another in the Carmelite convent at
 
 1 1 6 Early Printed Books 
 
 Barcelona. Two other books were printed in this 
 town in the fifteenth century, but they bear no 
 printer's name ; they are both commentaries on parts 
 of Aristotle by Petrus de Castrovol, and were printed 
 in 1488 and 1489. 
 
 A book is quoted by Caballero as having been 
 printed at Segorbe in 1479, tne Constitutiones synod- 
 ales Bartholomcei Marti; but its existence is a little 
 doubtful. Besides this one book, no other is known 
 to have been printed at Segorbe until well on in the 
 sixteenth century ; and it is therefore quite probable 
 that the book, if it really exists, was printed at some 
 other town, and that the writer who saw it was 
 misled by the occurrence of the name in the 
 title. 
 
 Printing is said to have been introduced at Toledo 
 in 1480. The book which bears this date, Leyes 
 originates de los Reyes de Espana, has no name of 
 place, but has been assigned to Toledo by several 
 Spanish bibliographers who have examined a copy, 
 and who are clear that it is printed in the same 
 type as the Confutatorium errorum of Peter Ximenes 
 de Prexamo, which was printed there by -John 
 Vasqui in July 1486. This latter book has been 
 considered by many to be the first, since, as it was 
 written by a canon of Toledo in 1478, it is argued 
 that had that city possessed a press it would have 
 been issued before 1486. 
 
 Salamanca, Zamora, Gerona, follow in 1481, 1482, 
 and 1483 respectively, though the existence of a
 
 Spain and Portugal 117 
 
 press at the last place is very doubtful. The one 
 book said to have been printed there, Memorial del 
 pecador remut, has the following words in the colophon : 
 ' impressa a despeses de Matheu Vendrell mercader 
 en la ciutat de Girona.' This Matthew Vendrell 
 appears also at Barcelona in 1484 ; but he seems to 
 have been a stationer rather than a printer, and 
 the wording of the colophon mentioned above tends 
 to confirm that idea. Unfortunately, the very great 
 rarity of early Spanish books, at any rate in this 
 country, precludes the comparative study of the 
 types, and very little has yet been done to distinguish 
 them. If this were done, it would be easy to settle 
 the printers of such doubtful books. As there is 
 no other book known to have been printed at Gerona 
 till near the middle of the sixteenth century, it will 
 be safer, until a fuller account be forthcoming, to 
 ascribe this book, following M. Nee de la Rochelle, 
 to a press at Barcelona. 
 
 In 1485 we have Burgos, where Frederick of Basle 
 (at one time an associate of Wenssler's) printed ; 
 Palma, where Nicolas Calafati printed ; and probably 
 also Xeres, though the existence of the press in this 
 latter place is doubtful. The only known book 
 quoted by M. Caballero is the Constitntiones synodales 
 urbis vel ecclesia Xericana, per Earth: Marti, 1485. 
 This bibliographer, however, gives no information 
 about the book, or any indication of the size or type ; 
 and as no other book is known to have been printed 
 at Xeres within the next fifty years, it is quite
 
 1 1 8 Early Printed Books 
 
 probable that the book mentioned above, though 
 relating to the town, was not printed there. 
 
 At Murcia only two or three books were issued 
 in the fifteenth century, printed by a German named 
 Lope de Roca. The first is the Copilacion de las 
 Batallas campales, finished the 28th of May 1487. 
 Panzer, Maittaire, and others speak erroneously of 
 the printer as Juan de Roca. Lope de Roca, after 
 printing two or three books in Murcia, left there and 
 went to Valentia, where he printed in 1495 and 
 1497. 
 
 In 1489, printing was introduced into San Cucufat, 
 into Coria, where only one book was printed in 
 the fifteenth century, the Blason general de todas las 
 insignias del universo, printed by Bartholomeus de 
 Lila (Lille), a Fleming ; and it is usually said into 
 Tolosa. The history of printing in the latter town 
 offers many difficulties. Bibliographers have con- 
 fused Toulouse in France with Tolosa in Biscay ; and 
 the difficulty increases when we find that some Spanish 
 books were certainly printed at the former place. The 
 best authorities seem unfortunately to agree that the 
 Cronica de Espafta, by Diego de Valera, is the earliest 
 book ; printed by Henry Meyer or Mayer in 1489. 
 M. Nee de la Rochelle speaks of this Chronicle as 
 printed in 1488, and also quotes a work by Guillaume 
 de Deguilleville, a translation into Spanish of the 
 Pelerinage de la vie humaine, printed by the same 
 printer as early as 1480. The date should be 1490, 
 but is given as 1480 in the BibL Hisp. vetus of
 
 Spain and Portugal 119 
 
 Antonio (ii. 311), and also by Hain (No. 7848). 
 This Henry Mayer, however, was certainly a printer 
 of Toulouse in France, and not of Tolosa, so that 
 all the remarks of the bibliographers are beside the 
 point. His name is found mentioned in 1488 in 
 registers at Toulouse ; and he says in the colophon to 
 the Boethius of the same year, ' impresso en Tolosa 
 de Francia.' It is not at all improbable that all the 
 early books with 'Tolosae' in the colophon were 
 printed in France, and that there was no fifteenth 
 century press at Tolosa. 
 
 The first book printed at Valladolid is the Tractado 
 breve de Confession of 1492 ; but it has no printer's 
 name. In the following year another book was 
 printed, which gives the name of the printer as 
 Johan de Francour. The next two places, Cagliari 
 and Monterey, have each only one book printed 
 ig the fifteenth century. The book printed at 
 Cagliari is a Speculum Ecclesia, and was printed 
 by Salvador de Bolonga (Bologna), at the request 
 of Nicholas Dagreda. The only known copy is 
 in the Municipal Library at Palma. The book 
 printed at Monterey was a Missal, printed by two 
 partners, Gundisalvus Rodericus de la Passera and 
 Johannes de Porres. Granada (1496), Tarragona 
 (1498), the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin of 
 Monserrat (1499), Madrid (1499), and perhaps Jaen 
 (1500), complete the list of places where printing was 
 practised in Spain before the end of the fifteenth 
 century.
 
 1 20 Early Printed Books 
 
 Numerous writers have asserted that printing 
 began at Leiria in Estremadura as early as 1466. 
 Antonio Ribeiro dos Santos, who wrote a learned 
 dissertation on the subject, seems to place his chief 
 reliance on a statement made by Pedro AfTonso de 
 Vasconcellos in 1588, that Leiria was the first town 
 to receive the art ; and on a further assertion by 
 Soares de Silva, that he had seen a quarto volume 
 containing the poems of the Infante Dom Pedro, which 
 had at the end a note that it was printed nine years 
 after the invention of printing. The particular copy 
 here referred to was destroyed in 1755 ; other copies 
 of the book contain no imprint. Whatever may be 
 said about the probability of printing having been 
 introduced at an early date into Portugal, the fact 
 remains that the first authentic dated book appeared 
 at Lisbon in 1489. It is a Commentary on the 
 Pentateuch, by Moses ben Nachman, and was printed 
 by two Jews, Rabbi Samuel Zorba and Rabbi Eliezer. 
 It was through the Jews, shortly to be so ungratefully 
 treated, that printing was introduced into two out of 
 the three towns of Portugal in which it was practised 
 in the fifteenth century. They were, however, a 
 people apart, and the books which they printed were 
 for their own use, and in a tongue not understood by 
 others. It was not till 1495 that two other printers, 
 Nicolaus de Saxonia and Valentinus de Moravia, 
 started at Lisbon to issue books in other languages 
 than Hebrew. Another Jew, Abraham, son of Don 
 Samuel Dortas or de Orta, printed the earliest books
 
 Denmark and Sweden \ 2 1 
 
 of Leiria. The first book, the Proverbs of Solomon, 
 with a commentary, was issued in 1492 ; and other 
 books appeared in 1494 and 1496. The third and 
 last town in Portugal where we find a printing press 
 in the fifteenth century was Braga. Here, in 1494, 
 a certain German named John Gherlinc, who seems 
 to have printed later at Barcelona, printed a 
 Breviary according to the use of the church of 
 Braga. No other book is known to have been 
 printed in this important town for the next forty 
 years. 
 
 In the British Museum is a Hebrew Pentateuch, 
 printed at 'Taro' in 1487. It is not known where 
 this place was ; but it has been conjectured that the 
 name is a misprint for Faro, a town of Portugal 
 (though it might stand for Toro in Leon) ; and if 
 this is so, the date of the introduction of printing 
 into Portugal must be placed two years farther back. 
 
 DENMARK AND SWEDEN. 
 
 The first book printed in Denmark, or indeed in 
 the whole of the Northern countries, was an edition 
 of Gulielmi Caorsini de obsidione et bello Rhodiano, 
 of which a single copy is now preserved in 
 the library at Upsala. It was printed in 1482 at 
 Odensee, by John Snell, with the colophon : ' Per 
 venerabilem virum Johannem Snel artis impressorie 
 magistrum in Ottonia impressa sub anno domini 
 1482.' After the printing of this one book, Snell
 
 122 Early Printed Books 
 
 went to Stockholm. In 1486 one book was printed 
 at Schleswig, by Stephen Arndes, who had already 
 printed at Perusia, and who in 1487 appears at 
 Lubeck. The book was the Missale secundum 
 Ordinarium et ritum Ecclesice Sleswicensis, and no 
 other was issued at this town in the fifteenth 
 century. Next in order comes Copenhagen, to 
 which, about 1490, Govaert van Ghemen moved 
 from the Netherlands. The first dated book issued 
 was the Regulcs de figuratis construclionibus gram- 
 maticis of 1493. According to M. Deschamps, this 
 was preceded by a Donatus, without date, but hav- 
 ing the name of the printer ; and it is supposed 
 that Govaert van Ghemen began to print in March 
 1490. He seems to have printed up to the year 
 1510. 
 
 John Snell, who has already been noticed as a 
 printer at Odensee, came to Stockholm in 1483, 
 and in that year printed the Dialogus Creaturarum 
 Moralizatus, a small quarto of 156 leaves, with 
 twenty-three lines to the page. [Hain, 6128.] Of 
 this book four examples were known ; one unfor- 
 tunately perished in the fire at Abo in 1827. Of the 
 others, two are at Upsala, and the third at Copen- 
 hagen. No other book appears at Stockholm until 
 1495, when the Breviarium Strengenense was printed. 
 The printer's name is given as Johannes Fabri. And 
 some writers would have this to be another form of 
 the name Snell ; Snell, they say, being the same 
 ' practically ' as Smed, Smed being our Smith, and
 
 Denmark and Sweden 123 
 
 Faber or Fabri the Latin. This alteration, however, 
 is not quite satisfactory. 
 
 In the same year as the Breviarium Strengemnse 
 was issued, the first book in Swedish was printed by 
 the same printer. It is the Bok of Djdfvulsens 
 frastilse, by John Gerson. The printer, John Fabri, 
 died in the course of this year; for in the year 
 following we find issued the Breviarium secundum 
 ritum ecclesia Upsalensis, printed by the widow of 
 John Fabri. One other book must be noticed as 
 printed in the fifteenth century ; it is the De 
 dignitate psalterii, by Alanus de Rupe, printed pro- 
 bably at Stockholm, but with no printer's name. 
 One book only is known to have been printed at 
 Wadsten in the fifteenth century ; it is an edition 
 of the Breviarium ad usum ccenobii Wadstenensis de 
 orditie S. Brigitta, printed in 1495, an octavo with 
 twelve lines to the page. Only one copy is known, 
 which passed after the Reformation, with the rest of 
 the books belonging to the monastery, into the library 
 of Upsala. The printing press of this monastery 
 came to an untimely end, for in the middle of 
 October 1495 the whole of the part of the building 
 where it stood was destroyed by fire. Of this 
 occurrence an account is preserved ; and we learn 
 from it that not only did the monastery lose all 
 its printing materials, but that a tub full of the 
 Revelaciones Sancta Brigitta, which had been printed 
 in 1492 at Lubeck, by Bartholomaeus Ghotan, and 
 which the printer had sent up for sale, were also
 
 1 24 Early Printed Books 
 
 destroyed. Stockholm and Wadsten are the only 
 places in Sweden where any books were produced 
 in the fifteenth century; and the total number of 
 books issued, according to Schroder's Incunabula 
 artis typographic^ in Suecia, was six.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CAXTON WYNKYN DE WORDE JULIAN NOTARY. 
 
 THE history of the Introduction of Printing into 
 England is comparatively clear and straightforward ; 
 for we have neither the difficulties of conflicting 
 accounts, as in the case of Germany and the Low 
 Countries, nor troublesome manuscript references 
 which cannot be adequately explained, as in the case 
 of France. Previous to 1477, when Caxton intro- 
 duced the art in a perfect state, nothing had been 
 produced in England but a few single sheet prints, 
 such as the Images of Pity, of which there are copies 
 in the British Museum and the Bodleian, and the cut 
 of the Lion, the device of Bishop Gray (1454-1479), 
 in Ely Cathedral. 
 
 There was no block-printing (for the verses on the 
 seven virtues in the British Museum, and formerly 
 in the Weigel Collection, are comparatively late), 
 and with the one exception of the false date of 1468 
 in the first Oxford book, which we shall treat of 
 later, there is nothing to confuse us in forming an 
 absolutely clear idea of the introduction of the art 
 into England, and its subsequent growth. 
 
 William Caxton, our first printer, was born, as he 
 
 125
 
 1 26 Early Printed Books 
 
 himself tells us, ' in the Weald of Kent,' but unfor- 
 tunately he has given us no clue to the date ; pro- 
 bably it was about 1420 ; and in 1438 he was 
 apprenticed to Robert Large, a mercer of the city 
 of London, who was Lord Mayor in 1439-40. His 
 business necessitated his residence abroad, and he 
 doubtless left England shortly after his apprentice- 
 ship, for in 1469 he tells us that he had been 'thirty 
 years for the most part in the countries of Brabant, 
 Flanders, Holland, and Zetland.' In 1453 he visited 
 England, and was admitted to the Livery of the 
 Mercers' Company. About 1468 he was acting as 
 governor to the ' English Nation residing abroad,' or 
 ' Merchant Adventurers ' at Bruges. After some six 
 or seven years in this position, he entered the service 
 of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward 
 IV. The greater leisure which this appointment 
 afforded him was employed in literary pursuits. In 
 March 1469 he commenced a translation of the 
 Recueil des Histoires de Troyes, by Raoul le Fevre, 
 but it was not finished till iQth September 1471, 
 when Caxton was staying at Cologne. 
 
 This visit to Cologne marks an interesting period 
 in Caxton's career, for it is most probable that it was 
 there he learnt to print. Wynkyn de Worde tells 
 us that the first book printed by Caxton was the 
 Bartholomews de proprietatibus rerum, and that it was 
 printed at Cologne. It has been the general custom 
 of writers to condemn this story as impossible, 
 perhaps without sufficiently examining the facts.
 
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 PAGE FROM SARUM BREVIARY. 
 (Printed at Coloftte.)
 
 Caxton 127 
 
 W. de Worde says in his preface to the English 
 edition 
 
 'And also of your charyte call to remembraunce 
 The soule of William Caxton the first prynter of this boke 
 In laten tongue at Coleyn, hymself to avaunce 
 That every well disposed man may thereon loke.' 
 
 Now, there is a Latin edition, evidently printed 
 at Cologne about the time that Caxton was there, 
 in a type almost identical with that of N. Gotz or 
 the printer of the Augiistinus de fide ; and it was 
 in conjunction with a very similar type, in 1476, 
 that the ' gros batarde ' type, which is so intimately 
 connected with Caxton, first appeared. Though 
 Caxton worked in partnership with Colard Mansion 
 about 1475-77, he had probably learnt something 
 of the art before ; and, taking into consideration 
 his journey to Cologne, the statement of Wynkyn 
 de Worde, and the typographical connexion between 
 the BartJwloniceus and Caxton's books, we may 
 safely say that the story cannot be put aside as 
 without foundation. It is not, of course, suggested 
 that Caxton printed the book by himself, but only 
 that he assisted in its production. He was learning 
 the art of printing in the office where this book 
 was being prepared, and his practical knowledge was 
 acquired by assisting to print it. 
 
 Another Cologne book which may have been 
 printed for Caxton, or produced through his means, 
 is the first edition of the Breviary according to the 
 use of Sarum. Unfortunately we only know of its
 
 128 Early Printed Books 
 
 existence through a few leaves in the libraries at 
 Oxford, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Paris, and have 
 therefore no means of knowing by whom it was 
 printed, or whether it had any colophon at all. It 
 is a quarto, printed in two columns, and with thirty- 
 one lines to the column. Such a book would hardly 
 have been printed without the help of an English 
 stationer, and who more likely than Caxton ? 
 
 In 1477 an eventful change took place in Caxton's 
 career. 'On June 21, 1476, was fought the bloody 
 battle of Morat between the Duke of Burgundy and 
 the Swiss, which resulted in the ruin of the Burgundian 
 power. In the following January, the Duke, while 
 engaged in a murderous battle at Nanci, was over- 
 powered and fell, covered with wounds, stubbornly 
 fighting to the last. Caxton's mistress was now no 
 longer the ruling power at the court of Bruges. The 
 young daughter of the late Duke succeeded as the 
 reigning sovereign, and the Dowager Duchess of 
 Burgundy resigned her position at court, retiring into 
 comparative privacy on a handsome jointure. Caxton's 
 services as secretary would now be no longer required 
 by the Duchess in her altered position.' 1 
 
 Early, therefore, in 1477, Caxton returned to 
 England, and set up his press in the Almonry at 
 Westminster. On i8th November of the same year 
 he finished printing the Dicles or Sayengis of the 
 Philosophers, the first book printed in England. 
 Copies of this book vary, some being without the 
 
 1 Who -was Caxton? By R. Hill Blades. London, 1877.
 
 Caxton 129 
 
 imprint This was followed by an edition of the 
 Sarum Ordinale, known now only from fragments, 
 and the curious little ' cedula ' relating to it, advertis- 
 ing the ' pyes of two or three commemorations.' 
 
 The productiveness of Caxton's press in its earliest 
 years was most remarkable, for we know of at least 
 thirty books printed within the first three years. A 
 good many of these, however, were very small, the 
 little tracts of Chaucer and Lydgate containing but a 
 few leaves each. These were the ' small storyes and 
 pamfletes ' with which, according to Robert Copland, 
 Caxton began his career as printer. On the other 
 hand, we have the History of Jason (150 leaves), The 
 Canterbury Tales (374 leaves), Chaucer's Boethius (94 
 leaves), the RJietorica Nova of Laur: Gulielmus de 
 Saona (124 leaves), the Cordyal (78 leaves), the 
 second edition of the Dictes or Sayengis (76 leaves), 
 and the Chronicles of England (182 leaves). 
 
 The starting of Lettou's press in London, in 1480, 
 may probably account for some of the changes intro- 
 duced by Caxton in that year. His first indulgence, 
 printed this year in the large type, was at once thrown 
 into the shade by the editions of the same indulgence 
 issued by Lettou in his small neat letter, which was 
 much better adapted for such work. Lettou also in 
 this year used signatures, Caxton doing the same. 
 The competition caused Caxton to make his fount of 
 small type, and to introduce many other improve- 
 ments. It was about this time that he introduced 
 woodcuts into his books ; and the first book in which 
 
 I
 
 1 30 Early Printed Books 
 
 we find them is the Mirrour of the World. The cuts 
 in this volume may be divided into two sets, those 
 given for the first time by Caxton, and those copied 
 from his predecessors. The first are ordinary wood- 
 cuts, the second what we should call diagrams. The 
 woodcuts are of the poorest design and coarsest exe- 
 cution. Several are of a master with four or five 
 pupils, others of single figures engaged in scientific 
 pursuits. The diagrams are more or less carefully 
 copied from the MSS. : they are numbered in the 
 table of contents as being eight in part I., nine in 
 part II., and ten [X. being misprinted for IX.] in 
 part III. Of the eight belonging to part I., Nos. 
 2 and 3 are put to their wrong chapters, and con- 
 sequently No. 4 is omitted altogether. The diagrams 
 to part II. are wrongly drawn, and in some cases 
 misplaced. The nine diagrams to part III. are the 
 most correct. Some writers have contended that the 
 cuts in Caxton's books are from metal and not from 
 wood-blocks ; but some of them which are found in 
 use at a considerably later date show marks of worm 
 holes, a conclusive proof of the material being wood. 
 
 To the year 1480 we can ascribe seven books, almost 
 all in the new type, No. 4. These are the French and 
 English phrase-book, Lidgate's Curia Sapienti<z, the 
 Chronicles of England, and the Description of Britain; 
 and three liturgical books, the De Visitatione B.M. K, 
 the Psalterium, and a Ho rce ad usum Sarum, the two 
 latter printed in type 3. Of the Hora, but a few 
 leaves are known, which formed part of the won-
 
 Caxton 131 
 
 derful find of fragments in the binding of a copy of 
 the Boetkius at St Albans Grammar School. This 
 volume was found by Mr. Blades in 1858, and from the 
 covers were taken no less than fifty-six half sheets of 
 printed paper, proving the existence of three works 
 from Caxton's press quite unknown before, the Hora 
 above mentioned, the Ordinale, and an indulgence of 
 Pope Sixtus IV. 
 
 About 1481 appeared the first English edition of 
 Reynard tJie Fox; and in that year two other books, 
 both dated, Tully of Old Age, and the Siege of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 These were followed by the Polycronicon, the 
 Chronicles of England (edit. 2), Burghs Cato, and 
 the second edition of the Game of the CJtesse, which 
 is illustrated with woodcuts, the first edition having 
 none. There are altogether sixteen different wood- 
 cuts used in the volume, and eight occur twice. 
 
 Between 1483 and the end of 1485, Caxton was at 
 his very busiest, issuing in that time about twenty- 
 two books ; and amongst them are some of the most 
 important There are the Pilgrimage of the Soul, the 
 Festial and Quattuor Sermones, the Sex Epistolce, of 
 which the unique copy is now in the British Museum; 
 the Lyfe of Our Lady, the second edition of the 
 Canterbury Tales (the first with woodcuts), Chaucer's 
 Troilus and Cresida and Hous of Fame, the Confessio 
 Amantis,the Knight of the Tower, andsEsvp's Fables. 
 This book, which appeared 26th March 1484, has 
 a full page frontispiece and no less than 185
 
 132 Early Printed Books 
 
 woodcuts, the work of two, if not three, different 
 cutters. They are of the very poorest execution, 
 and not original in design, being more or less 
 carefully copied from a foreign edition. The 
 whole of the earlier part of 1485 must have been 
 expended upon the production of the Golden Legend y 
 the largest book which issued from Caxton's press. 
 It contains 449 leaves, and is printed on a much 
 larger sheet than was generally used by Caxton 
 for folios, the full sheet measuring as much as 
 24 inches by 16 inches. It has, as illustrations, a 
 large cut for the frontispiece, representing heaven, 
 and two series of eighteen large and fifty-two 
 small cuts, the large series including one of the 
 device of the Earl of Arundel, to whom the book is 
 dedicated. Most copies of the Golden Legend now 
 in existence are made up partly of this and partly of 
 the second edition. As far as can be judged, the dis- 
 tinguishing mark is the type of the headlines, which 
 in the first edition are in type 3, and in the second 
 edition in type 5. No copy is known made up 
 entirely of one edition. 
 
 For the latter part of 1485 we have three dated 
 books, the Morte a" Arthur (3ist July), the only 
 perfect copy of which is now, unfortunately, in 
 America; the Life of CJiarles the Great (ist 
 December), the only existing copy of which is in the 
 British Museum ; and The Knight Paris and the Fair 
 Vienne (ipth December), of which again the only 
 known copy is in the British Museum.
 
 Cox tort 133 
 
 In 1487, Caxton tried a new venture, and had 
 printed for him at Paris, by George Maynyal, an 
 edition of the Sarum Missal. Only one copy is 
 known, slightly imperfect, which is in private hands. 
 In this book, for the first time, Caxton used his 
 well-known device, probably for the purpose of 
 emphasising what might easily have been overlooked, 
 that the book was printed at his expense. So 
 much has been written on Caxton's device, and such 
 extraordinary theories made about its hidden mean- 
 ings, that it may be as well to point out that it 
 consists simply of his mark standing between his 
 initials, with a certain amount of unmeaning orna- 
 ment It was probably cut in England, being 
 coarsely executed, while those used in France at 
 the same time are well cut and artistic. About 
 1487-88 we find two more books ornamented with 
 woodcuts, the Royal Book and the Speculum Vite 
 Christi. The Speculum contains a number of well- 
 executed cuts, the Royal Book only seven, six of 
 which had appeared in the Speculum. 
 
 About 1488 a second edition of the Golden Legend 
 was issued, almost exactly the same as the first, but 
 with the life of St. Erasmus added, so that this edition 
 does not end, like the first, with a blank leaf. At the 
 time of Caxton's death, he seems to have had a large 
 stock of this book still on his hands, for he left 
 fifteen copies to the Church of St. Margaret, and a 
 large number of copies to his daughter Elizabeth, the 
 wife of Gerard Croppe, a tailor in Westminster. It
 
 1 34 Early Printed Books 
 
 is hard to understand how, with this large stock still 
 for sale, Wynkyn de Worde could afford to print a 
 new edition in 1493 and another in 1498 ; for even at 
 the latter date copies of Caxton's edition were, as we 
 happen to know, still to be obtained. 
 
 To about this time may be ascribed the curious 
 Image of Pity in the University Library, Cambridge. 
 It is not printed on a separate piece of paper, but is a 
 sort of proof struck off on the blank last page of a 
 book with which the indulgence has nothing to do. 
 The book is a copy of the Colloquium peccatoris et 
 Crucifixi J. C., printed at Antwerp by Mathias van 
 der Goes about 1487, which must have been acci- 
 dentally lying near when the printer wanted some- 
 thing to take an impression upon. 1 
 
 In 1489, Caxton printed two editions of an indul- 
 gence of great typographical interest. This indul- 
 gence was first noticed by Dr. Cotton, who mentions 
 it in his Typographical Gazetteer under Oxford, sup- 
 posing it to have been printed at that place. Brad- 
 shaw, on seeing a photograph of it, at once conjectured 
 from the form and appearance of the type that it was 
 printed by Caxton, though Blades refused to accept 
 it as a product of his press without further proof, and 
 it was never admitted into any of his books on 
 Caxton. The same type was afterwards found by 
 Bradshaw used for sidenotes in the 1494 edition of 
 
 1 For a detailed account of this and other English Images of Pity, see 
 a paper by Henry Bradshaw, reprinted as No. 9 in his Collected 
 Papers, p. 135.
 
 Caxton 135 
 
 the Speculum Vite Christi, printed by W. de Worde, 
 and the type being in his possession at that date, 
 could have belonged in 1489 to no one but Caxton. 
 
 In a list of Caxton's types this type would be 
 known as type 7. 
 
 In addition to these two indulgences, a number of 
 books may be assigned to this year. The Fayttes of 
 Arms is dated ; but besides this there are the Statutes 
 of Henry VIL, the Governayle of Health, the Four 
 Sons of Ay man, Blanchardyn and Eglantyne, Direc- 
 torium Sacerdotum, second edition, the third edition 
 of the Dictes or Sayengis, the Doctrinal of Sapience, 
 and an Image of Pity printed on one leaf. The 
 second edition of Reynard tJte Fox, known only from 
 the copy preserved in the Pepysian Library, may also 
 be assigned to this year. With the exception of the 
 Eneydos, the remainder of Caxton's books are of a 
 religious or liturgical character. Amongst them we 
 must class an edition probably of the Horcs ad usum 
 Sarum not mentioned by Blades ; for though no copy 
 or even fragment is now known, it is certain that such 
 a book was printed. A set-off from a page of it was 
 discovered by Bradshavv on a waste sheet of the 
 Fifteen Oes. All that could be certainly distinguished 
 was that it was printed in type 5, that there were 
 twenty-two lines to a page, and that each page was 
 surrounded by a border. 
 
 The Fifteen Oes itself is a most interesting book. 
 It was printed originally, no doubt, as an extra part 
 for an edition of the Hor& ad usum Sarum now
 
 136 Early Printed Books 
 
 entirely lost. It contains a beautifully executed 
 woodcut of the crucifixion, one of a series of five 
 which occur complete in a Horce printed by Wynkyn 
 de Worde in 1494, and it is also the only existing 
 book from this press which has borders to the 
 pages. Caxton printed altogether about one hundred 
 books, using in them altogether eight types. Blades 
 gives ninety-nine books printed by Caxton, two of 
 which were certainly printed by his associate in 
 Bruges after Caxton had left for England. On the 
 other hand, he does not mention the newly-dis- 
 covered Grammar, the two editions of the Indulgence 
 of 1489, a second edition of the Lyf of our Lady, 
 known from a fragment in the Bodleian, and one or 
 two other indulgences. One or two books which 
 Blades includes were printed undoubtedly by De 
 Worde, such as the Book of Courtesy e (which, indeed, 
 contains his small device), The Chastysing of God's 
 Children, and the Treatise of Love. The genuine 
 Caxtons catalogued by Blades number ninety-four. 
 
 As regards types, Blades gives six of Caxton's, 
 and a seventh which he conjectures only to have 
 been used by Wynkyn de Worde, though in this he 
 was mistaken, for it occurs in books printed while 
 Caxton was alive. Again, the type of the 1489 
 Indulgence which he does not mention, was conclu- 
 sively proved by Bradshaw to be one of Caxton's 
 types. This type should be considered as type 7, 
 and the former type, which does not appear until 
 1490-91, as type 8. The woodcut initials which occur
 
 Wynkyn de Worde 137 
 
 in the Chastysing of God's Children were not used till 
 after Caxton's death. 
 
 But while we venerate Caxton as our first printer, 
 we must not overlook the claims which he has upon 
 us as a translator and editor. Wonderful as his 
 diligence in press-work may appear, it is still more 
 wonderful to consider how much literary work he 
 found time to do in the intervals of his business. He 
 was the editor of all the books which he printed, and 
 he himself translated no less than twenty-two, includ- 
 ing that great undertaking the Golden Legend. Even 
 on his deathbed he was still at work, as we learn 
 from the colophon of the Vitas Patrum, printed by 
 Wynkyn de Worde in 1495 : ' Thus endyth the 
 moost vertuouse hystorye of the deuoute and right 
 renowned lyves of holy faders lyvynge in deserte, 
 worthy of remembraunce to all wel dysposed persones, 
 which hath ben translated oute of Frenche into 
 Englysshe by William Caxton of Westmynstre late 
 deed and fynysshed at the laste daye of hys lyff.' 
 
 On Caxton's death, in 1491, his materials passed 
 into the hands of Wynkyn de Worde, his assistant, 
 who continued to print in the same house at West- 
 _ minster. Up to 1493 he continued to use Caxton's 
 type, with the addition of some woodcut initials 
 obtained from Godfried van Os, from whom he also 
 obtained a complete set of type, which was not used 
 till 1496, and then only for printing one book. 
 
 W. de Worde, though he must have lived for 
 some time previously in England, only took out
 
 138 Early Printed Books 
 
 letters of denization in 1496. The grant is dated 
 2oth April to ' Winando de Worde, de ducatu 
 Lothoringie oriundo, impressori librorum.' 
 
 The earliest books which he printed have no name, 
 and are all in Caxton's type, Nos. 6 and 4*, but with 
 some additional types which distinguish his works 
 from Caxton's. 
 
 From the time of Caxton's death, in 1491, to the 
 time when his own name first appears in an imprint, 
 Wynkyn de Worde printed five books. They are the 
 Chastysing of God"s Children, the Treatise of Love, 
 and the Book of Courtesye, all printed in type 6 ; and 
 the Golden Legend and the Life of St. Catherine, 
 printed in a modification of type 4*, a type which is 
 used in no other books. The Chastysing is interesting 
 as having a title-page, the first in any book from this 
 office ; while in the Book of Courtesye we find the device 
 of W. de Worde used for the first time. 
 
 In 1493 we find for the first time a book containing 
 De Worde's name. This is the Liber Festivalis, 
 probably printed towards the end of the year, for the 
 Quattuor Sermones, generally issued with it, is dated 
 1494. The next book to appear was Walter Hylton's 
 Scala Perfectionis ; and in the same year was issued 
 a reprint of Bonaventura's Speculum Vite Christi, a 
 book of very great interest, for the sidenotes are 
 printed with the type which Caxton used for his 
 Indulgence of 1489, and which was used for no other 
 book than this. To this year 1494 we may ascribe a 
 beautiful edition of the Sarum Horce, adorned with
 
 Wynkyn de Worde 139 
 
 woodcuts and borders, nearly all of which were in- 
 herited from Caxton. The type which De Worde 
 used for these books seems to have come into Caxton's 
 hands from France, during the last year of his life, 
 and resembles closely certain founts which belonged 
 to the Paris printers P. Levet and Higman, if indeed 
 it is not the same. After 1494, De Worde discarded 
 it, using it only occasionally for headings or titles. 
 Blades wrongly says that the use of this type separ- 
 ates the early W. de Worde books from the Caxton's ; 
 but Caxton certainly possessed and used it. The 
 distinctive mark of the early Wynkyn de Worde 
 books is the use of the initials obtained from G. van 
 Os. Bradshaw, speaking of these, says, ' Indeed, the 
 woodcut initials are what specially serve at once to 
 distinguish W. de Worde's earliest from Caxton's 
 latest books.' 
 
 In 1495 we have three dated books, the Vitas 
 Patrum, which Caxton was engaged in translating up 
 to the day of his death ; Higden's Polycronicon, the 
 first English book containing musical notes, and 
 the Directorium Sacerdotum. Besides these, a fair 
 number of undated books may be ascribed to this 
 year or the year after. The most important is the 
 Bartholomaeus, De Proprietatibus Rerum. Apart 
 from its ordinary interest, it is considered to be the 
 first book printed on paper made in England. 
 
 'And John Tate the younger, joye mote he broke, 
 Whiche late hath in Englond doo made this paper thynne 
 That now in our englisshe this boke is prynted Inne.'
 
 140 Early Printed Books 
 
 In 1496 appeared the curious reprint of the Book of 
 St. Albans. It seems never to have been noticed 
 that this book is entirely printed with the type 
 which was obtained from Godfried van Os about the 
 time of his removal to Copenhagen. Besides the 
 Book of St. Albans, it has an extra chapter on fishing 
 with an angle, the first treatise on the subject in 
 English. An edition of the Dives and Pauper, with a 
 handsome title-page, was issued this year, as well as 
 a number of smaller books of considerable interest, as 
 the Constitutions of Lyndewode, the Meditacions of 
 St. Bernard, and the Festial and Quattuor Sermones. 
 Among the dated books of 1497 are the Chronicles of 
 England, an edition copied from the one printed at 
 St. Albans ; and it is from the colophon to this edition 
 that we learn that the printer at St. Albans was 
 ' sometyme scole mayster ' there. 
 
 In 1498 three large and important books were 
 printed ; of these the first was an edition of the Golden 
 Legend, of which only one perfect copy is known, in 
 the Spencer Collection ; the next, a second edition 
 of the Morte a" Arthur, the first illustrated with wood- 
 cuts. The only known copy of this book, wanting 
 ten leaves, is also in the Spencer Library. The third 
 book was an edition of the Canterbury Tales. In 
 1499 a large number of books were printed, the most 
 curious being an edition of Mandeville's Travels, 
 illustrated profusely with woodcuts of the wonders 
 seen by the traveller, who got as far as the walls of 
 Paradise, but did not look in. Of this book two
 
 Wynkyn de Worde 141 
 
 copies, both imperfect, are known. A Book of Good 
 Manners and a Psalterium, both known from single 
 copies, were also printed in this year. An Ortus 
 Vocabulorum, printed in 1500, is the last book which 
 was issued by De Worde at Westminster. Alto- 
 gether, from 1491 to the time he left Caxton's old 
 house at Westminster, W. de Worde printed about a 
 hundred books, certainly not less ; and he also had a 
 few books printed for him, and at his expense, by 
 other printers. 
 
 In a very large number of De Worde's early books 
 he inserted the cut of the crucifixion, which is first 
 found in Caxton's XV Oes. In 1499 the block split 
 at the time when they were printing an edition of 
 the Mirror of Consolation, sometime after the loth 
 July, so that all the books which contain the cut in 
 its injured state must be later thaft loth July 1499. 
 
 The year 1 500 gives us an excellent date-mark for 
 W. de Worde's books, for in that year he moved from 
 Westminster ' in Caxton's house,' to London, in Fleet 
 Street, at the sign of the Sun. Upon moving he 
 seems to have destroyed or disposed of a good deal of 
 printing material. Some of his woodcuts passed to 
 Julian Notary, who was also at that time a printer in 
 Westminster. One of his marks and some of his 
 type disappear entirely at this time. The type which 
 he had used in the majority of the books printed in 
 the last few years of the fifteenth century we find in 
 use up to 1508 or 1509, when it disappears from 
 London to reappear at York; but his capitals and
 
 142 Early Printed Books 
 
 marks had changed. From 1504 onward he used in 
 the majority of his books the well-known square 
 device in three divisions, having in the upper part the 
 sun and moon and a number of stars. In the centre 
 the W. and C. and Caxton's mark ; below this the 
 ' Sagittarius ' shooting an arrow at a dog. It has not 
 hitherto been noticed that of this device there are 
 three varieties, identical to a superficial view, yet 
 quite distinct and definitely marking certain periods. 
 The first variety in use from 1505 to 1518 has in the 
 upper part eleven stars to the left of the sun and 
 nine to the right, while the white circular inlets at 
 the ends of the W. are almost closed. The second 
 variety used from 1519 to the middle of 1528 has the 
 same number of stars, but the circular inlets at the 
 ends of the letters are more open. The last variety 
 has ten stars to the left of the sun and ten to the right. 
 It was used from 1528 to the time of De Worde's 
 death. In the colophons of some of his early books 
 De Worde mentions that he had another shop in St. 
 Paul's Churchyard, with the sign of Our Lady of 
 Pity. 
 
 Wynkyn de Worde was essentially a popular 
 printer, and he issued innumerable small tracts ; 
 short romances in prose and verse, books of riddles, 
 books on carving and manners at table, almanacs, 
 sermons, grammars, and such like. Many of these 
 books were translations from the French, and were 
 made by Robert Copland, who was one of De 
 Worde's apprentices. The later books of De Worde
 
 Julian Notary 143 
 
 are often puzzling. He seems to have employed 
 John Scot to print for him, and many books which 
 have only De Worde's name are in Scot's type. One 
 book is particularly curious. It is an edition of The 
 Mirror of Golde for the Sinful Soul, 2Qth March 1522. 
 Some copies have a colophon, ' Imprinted at London 
 withoute Newgate, in Saint Pulker's Parysche, by John 
 Scot' Other copies have the first sheet and the last 
 leaf reset, while the colophon runs, ' Imprinted at 
 London in Fletestrete, at the sygne of the Sone, by 
 Wynkyn de Worde.' 
 
 De Worde died at the end of 1534. His will is 
 dated 5th June 1534, and it was proved ipth January 
 1535. His executors were John Bedill, who succeeded 
 him in business, and James Gaver, probably a book- 
 binder, and one of the numerous family of that name 
 who exercised their craft in the Low Countries. In 
 the forty years that he printed, Wynkyn de Worde 
 produced over six hundred books, that is, more than 
 fifteen a year, a much higher average than any other 
 early English printer attained. 
 
 About the year 1496 three printers started in part- 
 nership at the sign of St. Thomas the Apostle in 
 London. They were Julian Notary, Jean Barbier, 
 and a third whose name is not known, but whose 
 initials were I. H., and who may perhaps have been 
 Jean Huvin. The first book which they printed was 
 the Questiones Alberti de modis significandi, a quarto 
 of sixty leaves, printed in a clear, handsome black 
 letter. At the end of the book is a printer's mark,
 
 144 Early Printed Books 
 
 with the initials of the printers, but there is no colo- 
 phon to tell us either their names or the date of 
 printing. In 1497 they issued an edition of the 
 flora ad usum Sarum, printed, as we learn from 
 the colophon, for Wynkyn de Worde. The same 
 printer's mark is in this book, but again we have no 
 information about the names of the printers. In 
 1498 the firm had changed., I. H. had left, and the 
 two remaining printers, Notary and Barbier, had 
 moved to Westminster, perhaps in order to be nearer 
 the printer for whom they worked. In this year 
 they printed an edition of the Sarum Missal for 
 Wynkyn de Worde, and after this Jean Barbier 
 returns to France, leaving Notary at Westminster by 
 himself. There he continued to print up to some 
 time before 1 503, and in that year we find him living 
 'without Temple Bar, in St. Clement's Parish, at 
 the sign of the Three Kings.' Before moving, he 
 had printed, besides the books mentioned above, a 
 Festial and Quattuor Sermones in 1499, a Horcz ad 
 usum Sarum in 1500, and the Chaucer's Complaint 
 of Mars and Vemis, without date. About this time 
 he obtained some woodcuts from Wynkyn de Worde, 
 and we find them used in the first book he printed 
 at his new address, the Golden Legend of 1503(4], 
 and in it also are to be found some very curious 
 metal cuts in the 'maniere criblee.' An undated 
 Sarum Horce, in which the calendar begins with 
 1 503, should most probably be put before the Golden 
 Legend. From 1504 to 1510 Notary printed about
 
 C30tootl)efpriHieafceiiDeDfi;ot^ mount ofolp? 
 
 C JFo? bp npgl)te oott t^c fpDeof ^c toe p tf 
 
 m t!;c terii > 

 
 an edition of ti 
 
 
 
 WOO'
 
 aftcci)p0rcfurrcccpoi 
 jfo? to I) pel) e too Declare: 
 fcucutljpngcobcutobe 
 
 np afceiiDco toptlj I)pn 
 
 re I)e afecttDeD .^nt) feuentlp tui) ecf o;e I) e af ernD eD 
 C^Brooci)efpcai)eafccuDeDfcotl)cmountofclp? 
 uetcbpbedjaupc^ljctDljpcijemouutapttaftefano 
 
 C Jfo? b? npgl)tc ooiuije fpDeuf tljc IweQe tnslp/j 
 gtjceDDe of cljc f pice / tl)ac D?cuuetl)c in tlje tent 
 
 ttje rapec of tl)efonne/brf o;e it ^ptteci) in tt)e cpree. 
 2HnD alfo tcljac^ gt^te liabounoauncc of epic tijat 
 
 Ct 
 
 PART OF A PAGE FROM GOLDEN LEGEND. 
 (Trinitd by Notary, 1503-^
 
 Julian Notary 145 
 
 thirteen books, and in that latter year (as we learn 
 from the imprint of the Expositio Hymnorum} he 
 had, besides his shop without Temple Bar, another 
 in St. Paul's Churchyard, of which the sign was also 
 the Three Kings. 
 
 Between 1510 and 1515, Notary issued no dated 
 book, but in the latter year appeared the Chronicles 
 of England, and in the year following two Grammars 
 of Whittington. The old printing-office 'Extra 
 Temple Bar' seems to have been 'given up, for at 
 this time Notary was printing in Paul's Churchyard, 
 at the sign of St. Mark. After 1515 there is another 
 interval of three years without a dated book ; but 
 between 1518 and 1520 several were issued from the 
 sign of the Three Kings in Paul's Churchyard, and 
 after that Notary printed no more. His movements 
 from place to place are difficult to understand. In 
 1497 he is in London at the sign of St. Thomas 
 Apostle, in 1498 at Westminster in King Street. 
 About 1502-3 he moves to a house outside Temple 
 Bar, the one probably that Pynson had just vacated. 
 In 1510, while still printing at the same place, he 
 had a shop in St. Paul's Churchyard at the sign of 
 the Three Kings. In 1515 he is at the sign of St 
 Mark in Paul's Churchyard, in 1518 again at the 
 Three Kings. It seems probable that some of his 
 productions must have entirely disappeared, other- 
 wise it is hard to account for the number of blank 
 years. 
 
 The latest writer on Julian Notary conjectures that 
 K
 
 146 Early Printed Books 
 
 the sign of St. Mark and the sign of the Three Kings 
 were attached to the same house; that Julian Notary, 
 on moving to Paul's Churchyard, went to a house 
 with the sign of St Mark, and after printing under 
 that sign for two years, altered it, for commercial 
 reasons, to his old emblem of the Three Kings. 
 This is ingenious, but impossible, for the writer has 
 ignored the fact that Notary had a shop in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard at the Three Kings five years before we 
 hear of the one with the sign of St. Mark.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OXFORD AND ST. ALBAN'S. 
 
 As early as 1664, when Richard Atkyns issued his 
 Original and Growth of Printing, the assertion was 
 put forward that printing in England was first 
 practised at Oxford. ' A book came into my hands,' 
 says Atkyns, 'printed at Oxon, Anno Dom. 1468, 
 which was three years before any of the recited 
 Authours would allow it to be in England.' 
 
 The book here referred to is the celebrated Ex- 
 posicio sancti Jeronimi in simbolum apostolorum> 
 written by Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia ; and in 
 the colophon it is clearly stated that the book was 
 printed in 1468. ' Impressa Oxonie et finita anno 
 domini .M. cccc. Ixviij xvij. die decembris.' 
 
 Many writers have argued for and against the 
 authenticity of the date; and though some are still 
 found who believe in its correctness, it is generally 
 allowed to be a misprint for 1478. In the first place, 
 the book has printed signatures, which have not been 
 found in any book before 1472. Again, copies of this 
 book have been found bound up in the original bind- 
 ing with books of 1478. In the library of All Souls 
 College, Oxford, is a copy bound up with one of the 
 
 147
 
 148 Early Printed Books 
 
 1479 books, and though the present binding is 
 modern, they were originally bound together ; and we 
 find a set-off from the damp ink of the second volume 
 on the last leaf of the first. A copy in another 
 Oxford library, bound up with the 1479 books, has 
 been marked for or by the binder with consecutive 
 signatures all through the several tracts. Instances 
 of misprinted dates are far from rare. The Matara- 
 tius de componendis versibus, printed at Venice by 
 Ratdolt, is dated 1468 instead of 1478, and was on 
 that account sometimes put forward as a proof of 
 early printing there. Spain, too, claimed printing for 
 the same year on account of a misprinted ' 1468 ' in 
 a grammar printed at Barcelona. A Vocabularius 
 renim, printed by John Keller at Augsburg, has the 
 same misprint of 1468. However, the surest test of 
 the date of a book is to place it alongside others from 
 the same press, and compare the workmanship. In 
 this case the book falls naturally into its place at the 
 head of the Oxford list in 1478, taking just the small 
 precedence of the two books of 1479, which the 
 slightly lesser excellence of its workmanship warrants. 
 A break of eleven years between two books which 
 are in every way so closely allied would be almost 
 impossible, and quite unsupported by other instances. 
 Accepting 1478 as the correct date, it is clear that 
 Oxford lost no time in employing the new art, for 
 Caxton had only commenced at Westminster the 
 year before. 
 
 The first three books, the Exposicio of 1478 before
 
 Oxford 149 
 
 mentioned, and the &gidius de originali peccato, and 
 Textus ethicorum Aristotelis per Leonardum Aretinum 
 translates, both of 14/9, form a group of themselves. 
 They are printed in a type either brought from 
 Cologne or directly copied from Cologne work, and 
 strongly resembling that used by Gerard ten Raem 
 de Berka or Guldenschaff. None have a printer's 
 name, but they are ascribed to Theodore Rood of 
 Cologne, the printer of the other early Oxford 
 books. 
 
 The earliest of these three, the Exposicio, is a small 
 quarto of forty-two leaves, with twenty-five lines to 
 the page, and the other two are generally similar in 
 type and form. There are, however, one or two 
 differences to be noted in it. The edges on the right- 
 hand margin are often uneven, the letters O, H, g are 
 often wrongly used, the text begins on Ai instead of 
 on the second leaf, and it was printed one page at a 
 time. These faults were all rectified in the two later 
 books, which leave little to be desired in the way of 
 execution. 
 
 The next dated book appeared in 1481, and it has 
 the advantage of a full colophon giving the name of 
 the printer. It is a Latin commentary on the De 
 Aniind of Aristotle, by Alexander de Hales ; a folio 
 of 240 leaves, printed in type which had not been 
 used before, a curious, narrow, upright Gothic, not 
 unlike in general appearance some of the founts used 
 at Zwoll, or by Ther Hoernen at Cologne. A copy of 
 this book was bought in the year that it was published
 
 1 50 Early Printed Books 
 
 for the library of Magdalen College, Oxford, where it 
 still remains, for the sum of thirty-three shillings and 
 fourpence. In 1482 was issued a Commentary on the 
 Lamentations of Jeremiah, by John Lattebury, a folio 
 of 292 leaves. This is one of the least rare of the 
 early Oxford books, and three copies of it are known 
 printed upon vellum. The most interesting of these 
 is in the library of All Souls College, Oxford. It is 
 a beautiful copy in the original Oxford binding, and 
 the various quires are signed by the proof-readers. 
 Shortly after the issue of the Lattebury, the press 
 acquired an extremely beautiful woodcut border, and 
 the copies still remaining in stock of the Lattebury 
 and the Alexander de Hales were rendered more 
 attractive by having this border printed round the 
 first page of text, and at the beginning of some of 
 the divisions. In this second issue of the two books, 
 some sheets also appear to have been reprinted. 
 
 With these two books may be classed two others, 
 in both cases known only from fragments, an edition 
 of Cicero pro Milone and a Latin Grammar. The 
 Cicero pro Milone is a quarto, and would have con- 
 tained about thirty leaves. At present only eight 
 leaves are known ; four in the Bodleian, and four in 
 Merton College Library. This was the first edition 
 of a classic printed in England. Of the Latin 
 Grammar only two leaves are known, which are in 
 the British Museum. 
 
 The third and last group contains eight books, of 
 which only one contains a printer's name. This is
 
 Oxford 151 
 
 found in the colophon to the Phalaris of 1485, a 
 curious production in verse running as follows : 
 
 'Hoc Teodericus rood quern collonia misit 
 
 Sanguine germanus nobile pressit opus 
 Atque sibi socius thomas fuit anglicus hunte. 
 
 Dij dent ut venetos exuperare queant 
 Quam ienson venetos decuit vir gallicus artem 
 
 Ingenio didicit terra britanna suo 
 Celatos veneti nobis transmittere libros 
 
 Cedite nos alijs vendimus o veneti 
 Que fuerat vobis ars primum nota latini 
 
 Est eadem nobis ipsa reperta patres 
 Quamvis semotos toto canit orbe britannos 
 
 Virgilius. placet his lingua latina tamen.' 
 
 From this we learn that Rood had taken as his 
 partner one Thomas Hunt, an Englishman, who had 
 been established as a stationer in Oxford as early as 
 1473. He was probably associated with Rood in the 
 production of all the books in the last group, and his 
 influence may be perhaps traced in the new founts of 
 type used in them, which are much more English in 
 appearance than any which had been used at this 
 press before. 
 
 One of the earliest of the books of this last group 
 is the Latin Grammar by John Anwykyll, with the 
 Vulgaria Terencii. Of the first part, the Grammar, 
 which contained about 128 leaves, only one imperfect 
 copy, now in the Bodleian, is known. Of the other 
 part, the Vulgaria, at least four copies are known, 
 and an inscription on the copy belonging to the 
 Bodleian gives us a clue to the date. On its first
 
 152 Early Printed Books 
 
 leaf is written the following inscription: '1483. 
 Frater Johannes Grene emit hunc librum Oxonie de 
 elemosinis amicorum suorum' Brother John Grene 
 bought this book at Oxford with the gifts of his 
 friends. 1483 is, then, the latest date to which we can 
 ascribe the printing of the book ; and this fits it into 
 its place, after the books of 1481 and 1482 printed in 
 the earlier type. 
 
 After the Anwykyll comes a book by Richard 
 Rolle of Hampole, Explanationes super lectiones beati 
 Job, a quarto of sixty-four leaves, of which all the three 
 known copies are in the University Library, Cam- 
 bridge. With this may be classed a unique book in 
 the British Museum, a sermon of Augustine, Excitatio 
 ad elemosinam faciendam, a quarto of eight leaves. 
 This book, bound with five other rare tracts, was lot 
 4912 in the Colbert sale, and brought the large price 
 of i livre, 10 sous, about half-a-crown in our money. 
 Another quarto, similar to the last two, follows, a 
 collection of treatises on logical subjects, usually 
 associated with the name of Roger Swyneshede, who 
 was most probably the author of one only out of the 
 nineteen different parts. It is a quarto of 164 leaves, 
 and the only perfect copy known is in the library of 
 New College, Oxford ; another copy, slightly imper- 
 fect, being in the library of Merton College. 
 
 Next in our conjectural arrangement comes the 
 Lyndewode, Super constitutiones provinciales, a large 
 folio of 366 leaves. This is the first edition of the 
 celebrated commentary of William Lyndewode, and
 
 ti&cio ffccfi* ahmteab At' 
 
 D 1 ctttone f aatf i . 
 
 tft noedne 
 
 muernet^pni/Qntt 
 
 eiue 
 
 tMjrntpttu.ff0*!ri$ntm pmgitti 
 mqutt w fitter mdi. ntftic font 
 tefe tat flij* wfhier . qwantomagief 
 ^t ji tntdi0 .^4bie twr-- 
 f fre i?i quit mait: itofh'6 
 refine* JB^'tanda ite f tahwq 
 ti patient i?abem^.^ui$ cuiQottfft0(i3 
 homttt fttm C fiftc w^ 
 nofhe fiiiicf oefhie* <t .:-^l^B 
 
 
 
 . - x 
 ; 

 
 
 com 
 
 
 are Universiv 
 
 :nay be classed 
 
 ermon of Augui 
 
 !y the a 
 
 t parts. It is quarto o 
 copy known is in t' 
 uiother copy, slightly 
 
 ^on Colic 
 ;ral arra 
 
 nes prc 
 This is the fir 
 iry of William Lyr
 
 4Pffife*io ffocfte ittmite afc tit '* 
 
 nt oft rum fact cn^ am (g bto (ga^ 
 
 fcttiane faattj enange 
 t) tatus eft noedne ad oniDu 
 JOcftfe iiiquit g fcfibitut robis 
 i^uctite ^ huie rncft^, JOulfatv g 
 a^tefuc robio dpmwa em qtii 
 ^cfit Acdpit. (? queceno m ucnitt g puffanft a 
 aetur . -Trwt qnt0 eft ej tbi<5 tmo a quo p 
 phucf eiu6 pene.nu^uidiapioe 
 Q?ut ft pifcem ^eden^nuquia 
 git ri.CSut prfit ouu.fco^ioncm pomgit ci 
 ergo 1 06 mquit cu fitie mali. noftic 
 DafadatcfiltfcJ w(lri0. qwantomagies r 
 fet cjui tntctte .^abit toff prtwftbuef 
 fiJo mquit wati: noflic ix-na ^atd 5are fUi)5 
 9eflti0 Jt2ita nda 1X0 f tatter* JCaU fumugfo 
 nu pattern jpateuittij .<E2uid cuidendfi^^udiV 
 tritmuj homen ntm * Ci fifte mquit mali. to 
 Sia^atc nofho fiitj'e oe(lti0 
 atte iUi 
 (2uonim 
 
 lotiurt quaiie j:akt.S2cmobonuo:mf[ fb 
 !tt(5 Cttt<5 . <^ r^o ftteiceo maii btui pattern 
 
 FIRST PAGE OF THE " EXCITATIO." 
 (Printtd at Oxford, c. 1485.)
 
 Oxford 153 
 
 of the Provincial Constitutions of England. On the 
 verso of the first leaf is a woodcut, the first occurring 
 in an Oxford book. 
 
 Ascribed to the year 1485 are the Doctrinale of 
 Alexander Callus and the Latin translation of the 
 Epistles of Phalaris, whose colophon has been already 
 noticed. 
 
 The Doctrinale of Alexander Callus is known only 
 from two leaves in the library of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge. These leaves are used as end papers in 
 the binding of a book ; and a volume in the library of 
 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, bound in identi- 
 cally the same manner, has also as end papers two 
 leaves of an Oxford printed book. That these two 
 books must have been bound by the same man, 
 almost at the same time, is shown from the fact that 
 in both we find used vellum leaves from one and the 
 same manuscript along with the refuse Oxford leaves. 
 
 The Latin translation of the Epistles of PJialaris, 
 by Franciscus Aretinus, is in many ways the most 
 interesting of this last group of Oxford books, con- 
 taining as it does a very full colophon. It was 
 printed, so the colophon tells us, in the 2Q/th 
 Olympiad, which those who write on the subject 
 say was the year 1485. It is a quarto of eighty- 
 eight leaves, and a very fine perfect copy is in the 
 library of Wadham College, Oxford ; two other 
 copies are known, belonging to Corpus Christi 
 College, Oxford, and the Spencer Library. 
 
 The last book issued by the Oxford press was the
 
 154 Early Printed Books 
 
 Liber Festialis, a book of sermons for the holy days, 
 by John Mirk. Several imperfect copies of this book 
 are known, the most complete being in the library of 
 Lambeth Palace. It is a folio of 174 leaves, and 
 contains a series of eleven large cuts and five small 
 ones. This series of large cuts (together with the 
 cut of an author at work on his book, which occurs 
 in the Lyndewode, and which is clearly one of the 
 set), were not cut for the Festial, but appear to 
 have been prepared for some edition of the Golden 
 Legend. It was to have been a large folio book, for 
 when we find the cuts used in the Festial, they have 
 been cut at one end to allow them to fit the smaller 
 sized sheet. 
 
 The Festial is dated 1486, but has no printer's 
 name. After this we know of no other book pro- 
 duced in Oxford during the fifteenth century, and we 
 have no information to account for the cessation of 
 the press. It is possible, however, that Rood left 
 Oxford and returned to Cologne. Panzer (vol. iv. 
 p. 274) mentions two books, Questiones Aristotelis de 
 > generatione et corruptions and Tres libri de anima 
 Aristotelis ', printed at Cologne by a printer named 
 Theodoricus in 1485 and 1486. In the library at 
 Munich is a copy of the first book, and a facsimile 
 of a page was published lately in Burger's Monumenta 
 Germanics et Italics Typographies .>. 
 
 Now the type in which this book is printed bears 
 the very strongest resemblance in many respects to 
 that used by Rood at Oxford in 1481 and 1482, and
 
 Oxford 155 
 
 the similarity of the names makes it possible, if not 
 probable, that Rood was the printer. The Ques- 
 tiones Aristotelis de generatione et corruptione was 
 finished at Cologne, 'anno incarnationis dominice 
 1485 in vigilia S. Andreae apostoli per Theodoricum 
 impressorem colonie infra sedecim domos.' 1 
 
 The vigil of St. Andrew was the 2Qth of November, 
 so that Rood had not much time to move from 
 Oxford and start his new office between the date 
 of the publication of the P/ia/aris, 1485, and the 
 29th of November of the same year. 
 
 Ennen and Madden consider that this Theodoricus 
 was a certain Theodoric de Berse, whose name occurs 
 in a list of printers and stationers of Cologne in 1501. 
 
 It is impossible with our present knowledge to say 
 any more on the question ; but if Rood did return 
 to Cologne, the Festial must have been printed by 
 Hunt alone. With it the fifteenth century print- 
 ing at Oxford suddenly ceased, after a fairly pro- 
 sperous career of eight years, during which at least 
 fifteen books were issued. 
 
 From 1486 onward we have no further record of 
 printing there till the year 1517. In the meanwhile 
 the stationers supplied such books as were required ; 
 and to some of them we find incidental references, 
 both in accounts and in the colophons of books 
 printed for them. 
 
 1 At this same address, where, in 1470, Ther Hoernen was living, 
 we afterwards find John Landen. It is not, however, quite clear that 
 ' infra sedecim domos ' was the denomination of a particular house.
 
 156 Early Printed Books 
 
 In 1506, Pynson printed an edition of the Principia 
 of Peregrinus de Lugo, at the expense of Georgius 
 Castellanus, who was living at the sign of St. John 
 the Evangelist. Between 1512 and 1514, Henry 
 Jacobi, a London stationer, moved to Oxford, and 
 started business at the sign of the Trinity, the sign 
 which h had used when in London. He died at 
 Oxford in 1514. In 15 17 the new press was started 
 by John Scolar, who lived 'in viculo diui Joannis 
 baptiste.' The first book he issued was a commentary 
 by Walter Burley on a part of Aristotle, and this was 
 followed in the next year by another book by the 
 same author, De materia et forma. In 1518 were also 
 issued the Questiones super libros ethicorum, by John 
 Dedicus [15 May], the Compendium questionum de 
 luce et lumine [5 June], and Robert Whitinton's De 
 heteroclitis nominibus [27 June]. To the same year 
 may be assigned a Prognostication by Jasper Laet, 
 of which there is a copy in the Cambridge University 
 Library. In 1519 there is only one book, printed by 
 a new man, for Scolar has disappeared. It is the 
 Compotus manualis ad usum Oxoniensium, printed by 
 Charles Kyrfoth, who lived like Scolar ' in vico diui 
 Joannis baptiste,' and perhaps succeeded the latter in 
 business. From this time forward no books were 
 printed in Oxford till 1585, when the University 
 Press was started by Joseph Barnes, and commenced 
 its career by issuing the Speculum moralium qucss- 
 tionum of John Case. 
 
 One more early Oxford stationer must be mentioned
 
 St. Albaris 157 
 
 as connected with printing, and this is John Dome or 
 Thorne, who was in business about 1520, and whose 
 most interesting Day-book was edited some years ago 
 by Mr. Falconer Madan for the Oxford Historical 
 Society. He was originally a stationer, and perhaps 
 printer, at Brunswick. A small educational work, the 
 Opusculum insolnbilium secundum usum insignis scole 
 paruisi in alma universitate Oxonie, printed by 
 Treveris, was to be sold ' apud I. T.' These initials 
 stand probably for John Thorne, and we find the 
 book mentioned in his accounts. 
 
 ST. ALBAN'S. 
 
 The schoolmaster printer of St. Alban's has left us 
 no information as to his life, or even told us his 
 name, and we should know nothing whatever about 
 him had not W. de Worde referred to him as 
 ' sometime schoolmaster of St. Albans.' 
 
 The press was probably started in 1479; for though 
 the earliest dated book is dated 1480, an edition from 
 this press of Augustini Dacti elegancie, in quarto, is 
 evidently earlier, being printed throughout in one 
 type, the first of those used by this printer. Of this 
 book one copy only is known, in the University 
 Library, Cambridge. 
 
 In 1480 the schoolmaster printer issued the Rhe- 
 torica Nova of Laurentius de Saona, a book which 
 Caxton was printing about the same time, and very 
 soon after it the Questiones Albertide modo significandi.
 
 158 Early Printed Books 
 
 These were followed by three more works in Latin, 
 the Questiones super Physica Aristotelis of Joannes 
 Canonicus, the Exempla Sacr(zScriptur<z>z.TL& Antonius 
 Andrese super Logica Aristotelis. The remaining two 
 books from this press, in contrast to those that had 
 preceded them, are of a popular character. These 
 are the Chronicles of England, and the treatise on 
 hawking, hunting, and coat armour, commonly known 
 as the Book of St. Alban's. 
 
 All the eight St. Alban's books are of the great- 
 est rarity. More than half are known only from 
 single copies ; of some, not a single perfect copy 
 remains. 
 
 The very scholastic nature of the majority of the 
 books from this press renders it more or less uninter- 
 esting ; but the two latest works, the Chronicles and 
 the Book of St. A/dan's, appeal more to popular taste. 
 Editions of the Chronicles were issued by every 
 English printer, and there is nothing in this particular 
 one to merit special remark. The Book of St. Albaris, 
 on the other hand, is a book of very particular 
 interest. It consists of three parts ; the first is 
 devoted to hawking, the second to hunting, and the 
 third to coat armours or heraldry. Naturally enough 
 it was a popular book so popular that no perfect 
 copy now exists. It also possesses the distinction of 
 being the first English book which contains speci- 
 mens of printing in colour ; for the coats-of-arms at 
 the end are for the most part printed in their correct 
 colour. Later in the century, in 1496, W. de Worde
 
 'St. Aldan s 159 
 
 issued another edition of this book, adding to it a 
 chapter on ' Fishing with an angle.' 
 
 In these eight St. Alban's books we find four 
 different types used. The first is a small, clear-cut, 
 distinctive type, but is only used for the text of 
 one book and the signatures of others. Type 
 No. 2, which is used for the text of the two English 
 and one of the Latin books, is a larger ragged 
 type, with a strong superficial resemblance to 
 Caxton's. Type No. 3, which is used in four Latin 
 books, is a smaller type, full of abbrevations and 
 contractions ; while the last type is one which had 
 belonged to Caxton (his type 3), but which he 
 gave up using about 1484. This use of Caxton's 
 type has led some people to imagine that there was 
 a close connection between the Westminster and 
 St Alban's press; and a writer in the Athenaum 
 went so far as to propound a theory that Caxton's 
 unsigned books were really printed at St. Alban's.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LONDON. 
 JOHN LETTOU, WILLIAM DE MACHLINIA, RICHARD PYNSON. 
 
 IN 1480, printing was introduced into London by 
 John Lettou, perhaps a native of Lithuania, of which 
 Lettou is an old form. The first product of the press 
 was an edition of John Kendale's Indulgence asking 
 for aid against the Turks, another edition having just 
 been issued by Caxton in his large No. 2* type. As 
 we have said, Lettou's small neat type was very much 
 better suited for printing indulgences, and its appear- 
 ance very probably caused Caxton to make his small 
 type No. 4, which he used in future for such work. 
 Besides two other editions of the indulgence, Lettou 
 printed only one book in this year, the Qucestiones 
 Antonii Andrea super duodecim libros metaphysice 
 Aristotelis. It is a small folio of 106 leaves, of very 
 great rarity, only one perfect copy being known, in 
 the library of Sion College, London. In 1481 another 
 folio book was printed, Thomas Wallensis super Psal- 
 terium, and probably in the same year a work on 
 ecclesiastical procedure, known only from two leaves 
 which were found in the binding of one of the Parker 
 books in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 
 
 160
 
 London 1 6 1 
 
 From the workmanship of these books we can 
 clearly see that Lettou was a practised printer, 
 though we know nothing as to where he learnt his 
 art His type, which bears no resemblance to any 
 other used in England, is very similar to that of 
 Matthias Moravus, the Naples printer; so similar, 
 indeed, as to make it certain that there must have 
 been some connexion between the two printers, or 
 some common origin for their types. Lettou was 
 assisted by a certain William Wilcock, at whose 
 expense the two large books were printed. 
 
 About 1482, Lettou was joined by another printer, 
 William de Machlinia, a native no doubt of Malines 
 in Belgium. These two printers employed a new 
 fount of type of the same school as the other English 
 types, and one suitable for the printing of the law- 
 books, which were their sole productions. In partner- 
 ship they printed but five books, the Tenores Novelli, 
 the Abridgment of tJie Statutes ; and the Y ear-Books 
 of the 33rd, 35th, and 36th years of Henry VII. The 
 first of these books is the only one which has a 
 colophon. It gives the names of the two printers, 
 and states that the book was printed in the city of 
 London, 'juxta ecclesiam omnium sanctorum;' a 
 rather vague address, since, according to Arnold's 
 Chronicle, there were several London churches thus 
 dedicated. 
 
 After these books had been issued, about 1483-84, 
 John Lettou disappears, and Machlinia carried on 
 his business alone. By himself he printed at least 
 
 L
 
 1 62 Early Printed Books 
 
 twenty-two books or editions. Out of all this 
 number only four contain his name, and not one a 
 date. He printed at two addresses, ' By Flete-brigge,' 
 and in Holborn. If these two addresses refer to two 
 different places, and we have no reason for supposing 
 the contrary, there is no doubt that ' By Flete-brigge ' 
 is the earlier. 
 
 How late he continued to carry on business it is 
 not possible to find out, as none of his books are 
 dated. The Bull of Innocent VIII., relating to the 
 marriage of Henry VII., which he printed, cannot 
 have been issued till after 2nd March 1486 ; and 
 the occurrence of a title-page in one of his books 
 points to a still later date, for we know of no other 
 book having a title-page printed in England before 
 1491-92. 
 
 Machlinia's use of signatures and initial directors 
 seems to have been entirely arbitrary, and it is im- 
 possible to arrange the books in any certain order 
 from their typographical peculiarities. 
 
 In the 'Flete-brigge' type there are nine books. 
 Two works of Albertus Magnus, the Liber aggrega- 
 tionis and the De secretis mulierum ; x a Hor& adusum 
 Sarum, known only from fragments rescued from old 
 bindings ; the Revelation of St. Nicholas to a monk 
 of Evesham, of which the two known copies show 
 curious instances of wrong imposition. There are, 
 
 1 The copy of this book in the University Library, Cambridge, 
 wanting all signature c, but in fine condition, and uncut, has on the 
 first blank leaf some early writing which refers to the year 1485, show- 
 ing probably that the book was not printed after that date.
 
 qaomam mffrmue fum fana me 
 conrurbsta f^ 
 omma offa ma t amma 
 r * s ^fwrb8ta 
 
 "^oncquo onucrtwc 
 ? airimam mca fajuii wie f ac jttop 
 
 i mcmof fttcwm^ 
 
 PAGE OF THE SARUM HOR>. 
 {Printed by MaMinia.)
 
 Ties- 
 
 3ut ? 
 
 
 Canutus, bishop of Aarhuus. It is impossible to say
 
 ra 
 
 rmt 
 
 mfumue fum fan* me 
 conturbara 
 t 
 
 eftmroone* 
 itiiferrto ante 
 
 ARUM HOR/C. 
 :<d by Mack
 
 London 163 
 
 besides, three law-books and a school-book, the 
 Vulgaria Terencii. Of the Hora ad usum Sarum 
 twenty leaves are known, all printed on vellum. In 
 size it might be called a i6mo, and was made up in 
 gatherings of eight leaves, each gathering containing 
 two sheets of vellum. These gatherings were folded 
 in a peculiar way. As an ordinary rule, when we 
 find a quire of eight leaves formed of two sheets, 
 leaves I, 2, 7, 8 were printed on one sheet, leaves 3, 4, 
 5, 6 on the other. But Machlinia adopted a different 
 plan, and printed leaves I, 4, 5, 8 on the one sheet, 
 leaves 2, 3, 6, 7 on the other. It is impossible to say 
 whether there were any cuts in the volume ; there are 
 none in the remaining fragments, but at the begin- 
 ning of certain portions a woodcut border was used, 
 which surrounded the whole page. This border was 
 afterwards used by Pynson. A curious thing to be 
 noticed about the type in which these books are 
 printed, is its very strong resemblance to some of the 
 founts of type used about the same period in Spain. 
 
 In the Holborn type there are a larger number of 
 books, at least fourteen being known. Of these the 
 best known and most common is jthe Speculum 
 Christiani, supposed, from the occurrence of the name 
 in a manuscript copy, to have been compiled by 
 one Watton. It is interesting as containing speci- 
 mens of early poetry. Another book was popular 
 enough to run through three editions; this was the 
 Treatise on tJte Pestilence, written by Kamitus or 
 Canutus, bishop of Aarhuus. It is impossible to say
 
 1 64 Early Printed Books 
 
 when it was printed, or whether some panic con- 
 nected with the plague caused a run upon it One 
 of the editions must have been almost the last book 
 which Machlinia issued, for it contains the title-page 
 already referred to. The most important book in 
 this set in point of size is the Chronicles of England, 
 of which only one perfect copy is known. In the 
 copy in the British Museum occurs a curious thing. 
 The book is a folio, but two of the leaves are 
 printed as quarto. In this type are three law- 
 books, Year-Books for years 34 and 37 of Henry 
 VI., and the Statutes of Richard III. There are 
 also two school-books, the Vulgaria Terenlii and 
 an interesting Donatus in folio, whose existence is 
 known only from duplicate copies of one leaf. The 
 remaining books are theological, and comprise two 
 separate Nova Festa, or services for new feasts ; one 
 for the Visitation of the Virgin, the other for the 
 Transfiguration of our Lord. These services were 
 almost at once incorporated in the general volume of 
 the Breviary, so that in a separate form they are very 
 uncommon. The last book to be mentioned is the 
 Regula et ordinationes of Innocent VIII., which must 
 have been printed some time after 23rd September 
 1484, when that pope was elected. Of a later date 
 still is a Bull of the same pope relating to Henry 
 VII.'s title and marriage. It must have been printed 
 after 7th November 1485 (the date of Parliament), and 
 after 2nd March 1485-86 (the date of the Bull). 
 Another book should be mentioned here, which,
 
 London 165 
 
 though it cannot with certainty be ascribed to any 
 known English printer, resembles most of all the 
 work of Machlinia. It is an English translation by 
 Kay of the Latin description of the Siege of Rhodes, 
 written by Caorsin ; a small folio of twenty-four 
 leaves. Many of the letters seem the same as 
 Machlinia's, but with variations and modifications. 
 
 The number of founts of type used in this office 
 throughout its existence was eleven, and of these two 
 are very peculiar. One of the larger sets of type 
 seems to have been obtained from Caxton, but it was 
 hardly used at all. Another set of capital letters, 
 which must have been obtained from abroad, occur in 
 some of the latest books. They bear no resemblance 
 to anything used by any other printer, and look rather 
 as though they belonged to a fount of Roman type. 
 
 Though 1486 is the latest date which we can fix to 
 any of Machlinia's productions, it is probable that he 
 continued to print up till about the year 1490. 
 
 Soon after the cessation of Machlinia's press, his 
 business seems to have been taken on by Richard 
 Pynson, whose first dated book appeared in 1493. 
 Though it is impossible to prove conclusively that 
 Pynson succeeded Machlinia in business, many small 
 points seem to show that this was the case. We find 
 leaves of Machlinia's books in bindings undoubtedly 
 produced by Pynson, and he was also in possession of 
 a border used by Machlinia in his edition of the 
 Sarum Horce. It is often said that Pynson was an 
 apprentice of Caxton's ; but we have no evidence of
 
 1 66 Early Printed Books 
 
 this beyond the words in the prologue to the Chaucer, 
 where Caxton is called 'my worshipful master' a 
 title applied sometimes to Caxton by printers living 
 fifty years after. 1 
 
 In his patent of naturalisation of 3Oth July 1513, 
 Pynson is described as a native of Normandy ; and 
 we know that he had business relations with Le 
 Talleur of Rouen, who printed some law-books for 
 him. These books, three in number, may be ascribed 
 to about 1490, or to some time after Machlinia had 
 ceased printing, and before Pynson had begun. It 
 was probably very soon after 1490 that Pynson set 
 up his printing establishment at the Temple Bar ; for 
 though his first dated book, the Dives and Pauper, 
 is dated the 5th July 1493, there are one or two 
 other books that can with certainty be placed 
 before it. 
 
 A fragment of a grammar, consisting of the last 
 leaf only, among the Hearne fragments in the Bod- 
 leian, is all that remains of one of his earliest books. 
 It is printed entirely in his first large coarse type, 
 which bears so much resemblance to some of 
 Machlinia's ; and was used as waste to line the boards 
 of a book before Passion Week, 1494. 
 
 The Chaucer, in which two types are used, one for 
 the prose and another for the verse, is also earlier 
 
 1 Blades, in his Life of Caxton, not only says that Pynson was 
 Caxton's apprentice, but that he used his mark in some of his books. 
 This mistake has arisen from a doctored copy of Bona venture's Speculum 
 vite Christi in the British Museum, which has a leaf with Caxton's 
 device inserted at the end.
 
 5li S weaicforte rtot* tiifctt iffimt ftfft fwi 
 bff wrttgii cri/B ti&i bewe pater mf aril be 
 w<mwfi8 go/tiae immofamuo/ fuppftcita 
 
 pitftctut au^idn) (tip t o8 rtole fafrttantto fa 
 futac? fni piopo fit i con feqttantur effect* 
 
 Icamatu 
 
 ft cflfeufii catt8i8urt) e( it? cafcufo nomei? nouti 
 fcriptft quob nemo fit nifi qui acctptt. 
 
 fcfofancfamiffcttacjfOj) cpoffcofTt 
 jfimue bomine a 8 ffonoz? nol0 c5pfacett 
 imi ftft tut bftt nil i3 crifh 8euotie pcozSim 
 recofenf e<*/ quefumu^ St Ictem^ta fpfi a ftd t$i 
 iirtaciorttaaccumufenf (teffccturt^ no^run^ag 
 
 fafuafozinf o 8ufdffimo fofa >nmf w irtt<nc$( 
 
 pec fota^cct fcaf miffapK8i(^qft 8e ocfauta 
 aatfur feb fine jCze8o. ^equmct a per octa* 
 
 FROM THE FESTUM NOMINIS JESU.' 
 PYNSON, C. 1493.
 
 \rough '. 
 
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 mentic 
 
 wnue uaxron anu JLC vvoruc signcu in LUC
 
 ttt twt* 8tfcftffimi ftfit fat 
 , rttC tfia m/hrtOtbrnopc etc in Cacti be 
 aetwmofamuo fttppftafrt 
 
 icawati. 
 
 H cafcuffl can 8i6um et if? cafcu tb nom^ notiS 
 fmptSquobrtcmo fit nifiquiacdpit 
 
 ftmue bomitit a8 fonoj? no! c5pf<tcm 
 tttfifi (ai bftt nf i ia ctifh 8euotm 
 quefiimtM St Icmn^a 
 
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 ar fora^ect Stcaf mifTapKSiiiqB Feort 
 ieur fcb fine Cze8o* 
 
 TUM NOMINI 
 PYNSON, C. 1493
 
 London 167 
 
 than the Dives and Pauper. It is illustrated with a 
 number of badly executed woodcuts, cut specially 
 for the book, of the various pilgrims in the Canterbury 
 Tales. Some of these cuts were altered while the 
 book was passing through the press, and serve again 
 for different characters. The Sergeaunt with a little 
 alteration reappears as the Doctor of Physick, and 
 the Squire is turned into the Manciple. 
 
 In 1493 the Dives and Pauper appeared. It is 
 printed in a new type, copied evidently from a 
 French model, and strongly resembling some used 
 in Verard's books. This type superseded the larger 
 type of the Cliaucer, which we do not find in use 
 again. To 1493 a number of small books can be 
 assigned, all printed in the type of the Dives and 
 Pauper, and having twenty-five lines to the page. 
 Amongst them we may mention the Festum Nominis 
 Jesu; an edition of Lydgate's Churl and Bird; a Life 
 of St. Margaret, which is known only from fragments, 
 and a legal work of which there is one leaf in Lambeth 
 Palace Library. 
 
 The method of using signatures, which Pynson 
 adopted in these early books, affords another small 
 piece of evidence to prove that he learnt to print at 
 Rouen, and not in England. In the quartos, the first 
 leaf of the quire is signed A I, the second has no 
 signature, while the third is signed A 2. This way of 
 signing (by the sheet instead of by the leaf), not a 
 very ordinary one, was commonly in use at Rouen ; 
 while Caxton and De Worde signed in the more
 
 1 68 Early Printed Books 
 
 usual manner, with consecutive signatures to each 
 leaf for the first half of the quire. 
 
 For some unknown reason, Pynson was dissatisfied 
 with the Dives and Pauper type, for after 1493 it 
 never seems to have been used again. From this 
 time onwards, till about 1500, the majority of his 
 books were printed in the small type of the CJiaucer, 
 or in some newer types of a more severe and less 
 French appearance. In his earliest books Pynson 
 used a device consisting of his initials cut in wood, 
 so as to print white upon a black background. It 
 resembles in many ways that of his old associate Le 
 Talleur, and may therefore have been cut in Rouen. 
 In 1496 we find him using two new devices, one a 
 large woodcut containing his mark, and a helmet 
 surmounted by a small bird, 1 which began to break 
 about 1497, and was soon disused. The other, which 
 is a metal cut, is in two pieces, a border of men and 
 flowers, and an interior piece with the mark on a 
 shield and supporters. The border of this device is a 
 most useful guide in determining the dates of the 
 books in which it occurs. In the lower part is a 
 ribbon pierced for the insertion of type. The two 
 ends of the piece below the ribbon were too thin to 
 be strong, so that the piece gets gradually bent in, 
 the ribbon becoming narrower and narrower. Accord- 
 ing to the bend of this piece the exact year can be 
 
 1 The bird above the helmet is a finch, no doubt a punning allusion 
 to Pynson's name, Pynson being the Norman word for a finch. 
 Very probably the birds in the large coat of arms are finches also, 
 though Ames calls them eagles.
 
 London 169 
 
 ascertained, from 1499, when it began to get displaced, 
 to 1513, when it broke off altogether. 
 
 Among the books which appeared in 1494, the 
 Fall of Princis, translated by Lydgate from Boccaccio, 
 is the most remarkable. It is printed throughout in 
 the smaller type of the CJuiucer, and at the head of 
 each part is a woodcut of particularly good execution. 
 The copy of this book in the British Museum, un- 
 fortunately imperfect, was rescued from the counter 
 of a small shop where it was being used to make 
 little bags or ' twists ' to hold pennyworths of sweets. 
 Each leaf has been divided into four pieces. A 
 Grammar of Sulpitius and a Book of Good Manners 
 were also printed with a date in this year. In 1495 
 no dated books were issued, but the Petronylla and 
 T/te Art and Craft to know well to Dye must have 
 been issued about this time. In 1496, Pynson printed 
 a small supplement to the first edition of the Hymns 
 and Sequences printed at Cologne by Quentell, and in 
 the following year he issued a complete edition of the 
 book, and an edition of the Horcs ad usum Sarum. 
 In the same year (1497) he printed six of Terence's 
 plays, each signed separately so that they could be 
 issued apart. About this year were issued two 
 interesting folios, Reynard the Fox, and a Speculum 
 vite Christi, with illustrations. In 1503 was issued 
 the Book of Cooker}', of which the only known copy is 
 in the library at Longleat, and the splendid Sarum 
 Missal, printed at the expense of Cardinal Morton, 
 and generally known as the Morton Missal. Of
 
 1 70 Early Printed Books 
 
 undated books printed about this time we may notice 
 especially, editions of Guy of Warwick, Maundeville's 
 Travels, Informatio Puerorum, a few small school- 
 books, and a number of year-books and other legal 
 works. 
 
 About 1502-3, Pynson changed his residence from 
 outside Temple Bar to the George in Fleet Street, 
 where he continued to the end of his life. His career 
 as a printer is curiously different from Wynkyn de 
 Worde's. The latter was the popular printer, pub- 
 lishing numbers of slight books of a kind likely to 
 appeal to the public. Pynson, on the other hand, was 
 in a more official position as King's printer, and seems 
 to have been generally chosen as the publisher of 
 learned books. Wynkyn de Worde printed ten slight 
 books for every one of a more solid character ; with 
 Pynson the average was about equal. 
 
 From. 1 510 onwards we find frequent entries relat- 
 ing to Pynson in all the accounts of payments made 
 by Henry VIII., and these show that he was clearly 
 the royal printer, and in receipt of an annuity. In 
 September 1 509, he issued the Sermofratris Hieronymi 
 de Ferraria, which contains the first Roman type used 
 in England. In 1513 appeared the Sege and Dystruc- 
 cyon of Troye, of which there are several copies known, 
 printed upon vellum. 
 
 Pynson's will is dated i8th November 1529, and was 
 proved on 1 8th February 1530. He was succeeded in 
 business by Robert Redman, who had been for a few 
 years previously his rather unscrupulous rival.
 
 London 171 
 
 The last few years of the fifteenth century saw a 
 great change in the development of English print- 
 ing. Up to the time of Caxton's death in 1491, there 
 seems to have been little foreign competition, but 
 immediately after this date the state of things 
 altered entirely. Both France and Italy produced 
 books for the English market, and sent over stationers 
 to dispose of them. Gerard Leeu at Antwerp printed 
 a number of English books, mostly of a popular 
 character, while Hertzog in Venice, and a number of 
 printers in Paris, printed service-books of Sarum use. 
 
 By 1493 two stationers were settled in England ; 
 one, Frederick Egmondt, as an agent for Hertzog, the 
 other, Nicholas Lecompte, who sold books printed in 
 Paris. Though we only know of these two as 
 stationers through their names appearing in the 
 colophons of books with which they were connected, 
 there must have been many others of whom we have 
 no trace. After the Act of 1483, which so strongly 
 encouraged foreign importations, a very large number 
 of books for the English market were printed abroad. 
 This was at first occasioned by the small variety in 
 the number of types and the scarcity of ornamental 
 letters and woodcuts. In 1487, Caxton commissioned 
 George Maynyal, a Paris printer, to print an edition 
 of the Sarum Missal, and this is the first foreign 
 printed book for sale in England whose history we 
 know. About ten years previously, a Sarum Breviary 
 had been printed at Cologne, and in 1483 another 
 edition at Venice. The first edition of the Sarum
 
 172 Early Printed Books 
 
 Missal was printed about 1486 by Wenssler at Basle. 
 In the fifteenth century, at least fifty books are 
 known to have been printed abroad for sale in 
 England. Most of these were service-books, but 
 there were a few of other classes. Gerard Leeu 
 reprinted three of Caxton's books, The Chronicles^ 
 TJie History of Jason, and the History of Paris and 
 the fair Vienne, and added a fourth popular book to 
 these, which had not previously appeared in English, 
 the Dialogues of Salomon and Marcolphus. In 
 addition to these, he printed editions of the Sarum 
 Directorium Sacerdotum and Horce. 
 
 Another class of books produced abroad were 
 school-books, and the earliest of these for English use 
 is an edition of the grammatical tracts of Perotttis, 
 printed at Louvain in 1486 by Egidius van der 
 Heerstraten. In the same year Leeu printed the 
 Vulgaria, and very shortly afterwards editions of the 
 Grammars by Anwykyll and the Garlandia were 
 issued from Deventer, Antwerp, Cologne, and Paris. 
 
 The greater portion, however, of this foreign im- 
 portation consisted of service-books, at least forty 
 editions being sent over from abroad before 1501. 
 From Venice were sent Breviaries and Missals, 
 printed for the most part by Johannes de Landoia 
 dictus Hertog. As we have said, the first edition of 
 the Sarum Breviary was printed at Cologne by an 
 unknown printer, and the first edition of the Sarum 
 Missal at Basle by Wenssler about 1486. From Paris 
 and Rouen came the greater number of Hora, and
 
 London 173 
 
 such books as the Legenda, Mamiale, and Liber 
 Festivalis. 
 
 It is impossible to enter here with any fulness into 
 the history of the earliest stationers and the books 
 printed abroad for sale in England. It is rather 
 foreign to our present subject, but would well repay 
 careful study.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE ART IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 THE introduction of printing into Scotland did not 
 take place till 1508, in which year a printer named 
 Andrew Myllar set up his press in the Southgait at 
 Edinburgh. At this time the countries of Scotland 
 and France were in close business communications, 
 and many Scotsmen sought employment on the 
 Continent. In 1496 a certain David Lauxius, a 
 native of Edinburgh, was in the employment of 
 Hopyl, the Paris printer, as a press corrector, an 
 employment often undertaken by men of learning. 
 Lauxius afterwards became a schoolmaster at Arras, 
 and is several times spoken of by Badius Ascensius 
 in the prefatory letters which he prefixed to his 
 grammars. Such books as were needed were sent 
 over to Scotland from France, and the probable cause 
 of the introduction of printing into the former country 
 was the desire of William Elphinstone, Bishop of 
 Aberdeen, to have his adaptation of the Sarum 
 Breviary for the use of Aberdeen produced under his 
 own personal supervision. Two men were readily 
 found to undertake the work ; one, Walter Chepman, 
 a wealthy merchant, who supplied the necessary 
 
 174
 
 The Spread of tJie Art in Great Britain 175 
 
 capital ; the other, Andrew Myllar, a bookseller, who 
 had several times employed foreign presses to print 
 books for him, and had himself been abroad on 
 business expeditions. 
 
 The books which had been printed for Myllar 
 were, Multorum vocabulorum equivocorum interpretatio 
 magistri Johannis de Garlandia y in 1505, and Expositio 
 sequentiarum secundum usum Sarum, in 1506; both 
 being without a printer's name, but most probably 
 from the press of P. Violette of Rouen. 1 
 
 As was to be expected, Myllar obtained his type 
 from France, and probably from Rouen, but it bears 
 no resemblance to that used in the books printed for 
 him. Among the Rouen types it is most like that 
 used by Le Talleur, but the resemblance is not very 
 close. The capital letters seem identical with those 
 used by De Marnef, at Paris, in his Nef des folz, and 
 are also very like those of the Lyons printer, Claude 
 Daygne. 
 
 Supplied with these types, Myllar returned to 
 Edinburgh, and in the spring of 1508 issued a series 
 of nine poetical pamphlets, the only known copies 
 being now preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edin- 
 burgh. These were all issued within a few days of 
 
 1 Dr. Dickson, relying on the authority of M. Claudin, has ascribed 
 these books to the press of Lawrence Hostingue of Rouen. From 
 the facsimiles which he gives it is clear that the types are not identical. 
 The books should rather be ascribed to Pierre Violette, who used, as 
 far as can be seen, the same type ; and who also used in his Expositio 
 Hymnorum et Sequentiarum ad usum Sarum, printed in 1507, the 
 woodcut of a man seated at a reading desk, which is found on the title- 
 page of Myllar's Garlandia.
 
 176 Early Printed Books 
 
 each other, and neither the type nor the woodcuts 
 show any indication of wear or blemishes which 
 might enable some order to be assigned to them. 
 These books, like Pynson's early quartos, are signed 
 by the sheet, an indication that the printer learnt his 
 art at Rouen. 
 
 In 1510 the Breviary was issued, and, were it not 
 for the colophon, would pass as the production of 
 a Norman press. It is in two volumes; the Pars 
 Hiemalis, containing 400 leaves, the Pars Estivalis, 
 378. Only four copies are known, all imperfect. 
 With the production of this book the Edinburgh 
 press stopped for some while. 
 
 There is no doubt much yet to be learnt about the 
 history of the first Scottish press, especially in its 
 relations to those of Normandy, and there seems no 
 reason why in time it should not become quite clear. 
 Not only are the original books in existence, but also 
 the acts relating to them. One other book must be 
 noticed as having been printed in Scotland before 
 1530. This is the De compassions Beate Virginis 
 Marie, a 'novum festum' issued for incorporation 
 into the Breviary, and printed at Edinburgh, by John 
 Story, about 1520. Of this little tract but one copy 
 remains, which is bound up in the copy of the 
 Aberdeen Breviary belonging to Lord Strathmore 
 at Glamis. It consists of a single sheet of eight 
 leaves, and, according to Dr. Dickson, is not printed 
 in the same type as the Breviary. 
 
 From this time onward till Davidson began to
 
 The Spread of the Art in Great Britain 1 77 
 
 print, it seems as though Scotland had no practised 
 typographer. Hector Boece, John Vaus, and others, 
 were obliged to send their books to be printed at a 
 foreign press ; Vaus indeed went over to Paris to 
 superintend the printing of his Grammar by Badius, 
 who was at that time the printer most favoured by 
 Scottish authors. 
 
 No book was actually printed at York till 1509, 
 but for many years before that date there had been 
 stationers in the city who imported foreign books for 
 sale. Frederick Frees, who was enrolled as a free- 
 man in 1497, is spoken of as a book printer, but no 
 specimen of his work exists. His brother Gerard, 
 who assumed the surname of Wanseford, imported in 
 1507 an edition of the Sarum Hymns and Sequences, 
 printed for him at Rouen by P. Violette. Of this 
 book only two copies are known. Shortly after 
 Gerard Wanseford's death, an action was brought 
 against his executor, Ralph Pulleyn, by Frederick 
 Frees, the brother, about the stock of books which 
 had been left, and which consisted mostly of service- 
 books, bound and unbound, with some alphabeta and 
 others in Latin and English. 
 
 In 1509 a certain Hugo Goes printed an edition 
 of the Directorium Sacerdotum, the first dated book 
 printed at York. Two copies are known, one in the 
 Chapter Library at York, and the other in the library 
 of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Davies 1 
 
 1 Davies' Memoir of the York Press, 1 868, 8vo, pp. 16-18. 
 M
 
 178 Early Printed Books 
 
 ~T~ 
 
 incorrectly states that both copies are imperfect, and 
 
 want the leaf upon which the colophon was printed ; 
 but it is certainly in thef Cambridge copy, for this 
 wants only the last leaf, which would either be blank 
 or with a printer's mark. The book is for the most 
 part printed in the type which W. de Worde used at 
 Westminster just before 1500. Goes printed also 
 editions of the Donatus and Accidence, but no copies 
 are now known, though in 1667 copies were in 
 possession of a Mr. Hildyard, a York historian. 
 Bagford, among his notes on printing [Harl. MS. 
 5974, 95], mentions a Donatus cum Remigio, 'im- 
 pressus Londiniis juxta Charing Cross per me 
 Hugonem Goes and Henery Watson' with the 
 printer's device H. G. This book also is unknown, 
 but may perhaps be the Grammar mentioned by 
 Ames as being among Lord Oxford's books. If the 
 copy of the colophon is correct, it shows that Goes 
 was at some time printing in London. He is said to 
 have also printed at Beverley. 
 
 In 1516, 'Ursyn Milner, prynter,' was admitted to 
 the freedom of the city. He was born in 1481, and by 
 1511 was living in York, when he gave evidence in 
 the suit between Ralph Pulleyn and Frederick Frees. 
 He printed only two books, a Festum visitationis Beate 
 Marie Virgtnis, and a Grammar of Whittington's. 
 
 The Festum was issued doubtless between 1513 and 
 1515, for in 1513 the Convocation of York ordered 
 the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
 to be kept as a 'Festum principale.' It is quoted
 
 The Spread of the Art in Great Britain 179 
 
 by Ames, p. 468, and has the following colophon : 
 ' Feliciter finiunt (?) festum visitationis beate Marie 
 virginis secundum usum ebor. Noviter impressum 
 per Ursyn Milner commorantem in cimiterio Minsterii 
 Sancti Petri.' It is in 8vo, and a copy formerly 
 belonged to Thomas Rawlinson. 
 
 The second book, the Grammar, is a quarto of 
 twenty-four leaves, made up in quires of eight and 
 four leaves alternately, a peculiar system of quiring 
 much affected by Wynkyn de Worde. Below the 
 title is a cut of a schoolmaster with three pupils, 
 which was used by Wynkyn de Worde in 1499, and 
 which he in turn had obtained from Govaert van 
 Ghemen about 1490. (The cut was first used in the 
 Opusculum Grammaticale, Gouda, I3th November 
 1486.) Below the colophon, which tells us that the 
 book was printed in ' blake-strete ' on the 2Oth 
 December 1516, is the printer's device, consisting of 
 a shield hanging on a tree supported by a bear and 
 an ass, the bear being an allusion to his name Ursyn. 
 On the shield are a sun and a windmill, the latter 
 referring to his surname Milner. Below this device 
 is an oblong cut containing his name in full on a 
 ribbon, his trade-mark being in the centre. 
 
 The connexion between the early York stationers 
 and Wynkyn de Worde is very striking, and has yet 
 to be explained. Gerard Wanseford in his will, dated 
 1510, leaves forty shillings to Wynkyn de Worde, 
 which he (the testator) owed him. The next stationer 
 and printer, Hugo Goes, was in possession of some
 
 1 80 Early Printed Books 
 
 of De Worde's type; and Milner, the last of the early 
 York printers, used one of his cuts, and copies his 
 peculiar habit of quiring. Perhaps the type and cuts 
 were originally bought by Wanseford and obtained 
 successively by the others ; at any rate, both the type 
 and cut were out of W. de Worde's hands at an early 
 date. 
 
 The most important of the York stationers 
 remains still to be noticed, though he was unfor- 
 tunately only a stationer and not a printer. John 
 Gachet appears at York in 1517, and in the same 
 year is mentioned as a stationer at Hereford. He 
 was in business in the former town at least as late 
 as 1533, when the last book printed at his expense 
 was issued. 
 
 Printing was introduced into Cambridge in 1521, 
 when John Lair de Siberch, perhaps at the instigation 
 of Richard Croke, who from 1522 was professor of 
 Greek and public orator, set up his press at the sign 
 of the Arma Regia. In 1521 he printed six books, 
 and of these the Oratio Henrici Bulled is the first. 
 The five other books follow in the following order : 
 Augustini Sermo, Luciani irtpl fa'^d&uv, Balduini 
 sermo de altaris sacramento, Erasmus de conscribendis 
 epistolis, and Galeni de Temperamentis. In the 
 next year Siberch printed only two books, Joannis 
 Roffensis episcopi contio, and Papyrii Gemini Eleatis 
 Hermathena. It is needless to describe these books 
 more fully here, for an extremely good and full
 
 The Spread of the Art in Great Britain 181 
 
 bibliography of them was compiled by Bradshaw, 
 and published as an introduction to one of the Cam- 
 bridge facsimiles in I886. 1 
 
 Since the publication of this bibliography, the 
 existence of another book from the first Cambridge 
 press has been discovered. In 1889, among some 
 other fragments forming the covers of a book in 
 Westminster Abbey Library, were found part of the 
 first sheet of the Cambridge Papyrius Gemlnus, and 
 two leaves of a grammar in the same type, in quarto, 
 with twenty-six lines to the page besides headlines. 
 These turned out to be part of the small grammar, 
 De octo orationis partium constructione, written for 
 use in Paul's School. It was written by Lily and 
 amended by Erasmus, and finally issued anonym- 
 ously. After the printing of these nine books Siberch 
 is lost sight of; but that he was still alive in 1525 
 we know from a letter of Erasmus, who, writing 
 on Christmas Day to Dr. Robert Aldrich of King's 
 College, sends greetings, among others, to 'Gerar- 
 dum, Nicolaum et Joannem Siburgum bibliopolas.' 
 Amongst the fragments taken from the binding 
 spoken of above, was a letter to Siberch from the 
 well-known Antwerp and London bookseller, Peter 
 Kaetz, relating to the purchase of books, but it has 
 unfortunately no date, though certainly earlier than 
 1524. 
 
 1 Doctissimi viri Hcnrici Bulloci Oratio . . . reproduced in facsimile 
 . . . with a bibliographical introduction by the late Henry Bradshaw, 
 M.A. Cambridge, 1886. 410.
 
 1 8 2 Early Printed Books 
 
 Two books were printed at Tavistock in the first 
 half of the sixteenth century; and as the monks 
 possessed a printing press of their own, it is quite 
 probable that other books were issued which have 
 now entirely perished. The first book is an English 
 metrical translation of the De Consolatione Philo- 
 sophies of Boethius made by Thomas Waltwnem. It 
 has the following colophon: 'Emprented in the exempt 
 monastery of Tavestock in Denshyre. By me Dan 
 Thomas Rychard, monke of the sayd monastery. To 
 the instant desyre of the ryght worshypful esquyer 
 Mayster Robert Langdon, anno d. MDXXV.' Several 
 copies of this book are known. 
 
 Of the other book but one copy is known, now in 
 the library of Exeter College, Oxford. It is a small 
 quarto of twenty-six leaves, with thirty or thirty-one 
 lines to the page. The title runs, ' Here foloyth the 
 confirmation of the Charter perteynynge to all the 
 tynners wythyn the countey of Devonshyre, wyth 
 there statutes also made at Crockeryntorre by the 
 hole assent and consent of al the sayd tynners yn the 
 yere of the reygne of our souerayne Lord Kynge 
 Henry ye VIII. the secund yere.' The book ends 
 on the reverse of signature d 3, ' Here endyth the 
 statutes of the stannary. Imprented yn Tavystoke 
 ye xx day of August the yere of the reygne off our 
 soveryne Lord Kynge Henry ye VIII. the xxvi 
 yere.' 
 
 At Abingdon a book was printed in 1528 by John 
 Scolar, who had been printing at Oxford about ten
 
 The Spread of the Art in Great Britain 183 
 
 years previously. It is the Breviary for the use of 
 Abingdon, and the only known copy is in the library 
 of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The colophon 
 runs : ' Istud portiforium fuit impressum per Joannem 
 Scholarem in monasterio beate marie virginis Aben- 
 donensi. Anno incarnationis dominice Millesimo 
 quingentesimo vicesimo octavo. Et Thome Row- 
 londe abbatis septimo decimo.' 
 
 Two other towns must be mentioned, which, though 
 not possessing resident printers, had stationers who 
 published books printed for them. In 1505 the 
 Hereford Breviary was issued under the super- 
 intendence of Inghelbert Haghe, and under the 
 patronage of the ' Illustrissime viraginis,' Margaret, 
 Countess of Richmond and Derby. It has the 
 following colophon : ' Impressum est hoc breviarium 
 secundum eiusdem diocesis usum in clarissimo 
 rathomagensi emporio : impensis et cura Inghelberti 
 Haghe dicte comitis bibliopole ac dedititii. Anno 
 salutis christi Millesimo quingentesimo quinto. n.non. 
 augusti.' Of this book only three copies are known. 
 One, textually perfect, and containing both parts, 
 is in Worcester Cathedral Library. The Bodleian 
 has a Pars Estivalis, slightly imperfect, and another 
 copy is in private hands. We can trace this bookseller 
 to a later date, for his name occurs in a note written 
 on a fragment in the Bodleian, which formed at 
 one time the lining of a binding, ' Dedi bibliopole 
 herfordensi Ingleberto nuncupate pro isto et sex 
 reliquis libris biblie xliii 5 iiij d quos emi ludlowie
 
 184 Early Printed Books 
 
 anno domini incarnationis millesimo quingentesimo 
 decimo circiter die nundinarum lichefeldensium.' 
 
 The other town is Exeter, where, about 1510, a 
 stationer named Martin Coeffin was living. Two 
 books were printed for him, both of which were 
 without date. One of these was the Vocabula magistri 
 Stanbrigi, primum jam edita, sua saltern editione, 
 printed, so Ames tells us, by Lawrence Hostingue 
 and Jamet Loys at Rouen. He adds further, that 
 the ' piece ' had five leaves, which we may take to 
 be impossible ; it must have had six leaves, of which 
 the last was blank, or had a printer's device upon it. 
 The second book was a Catho cum commento, printed 
 at Rouen by Richard Goupil, 'juxta conventum 
 sancti Augustini ad intersignum regulae aurae com- 
 morantis.' On the subject of this book Ames is no 
 more explicit ; he tells us it was printed at the 
 expense of Martin Coeffin at Exeter, beyond that he 
 has nothing to say. The two pieces are quoted by 
 him in his General History of Printing between the 
 years 1510 and 1517, and the date which he thus 
 assigns is probably fairly correct, for Frere quotes 
 Goupil under the year 1510, and Hostingue under 
 1505-10.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STUDY OF BOOKBINDING. 
 
 Too little attention has been paid, in this country 
 at any rate, to the fact that some knowledge about 
 early bookbinding is essential to the student of early 
 printing. At first the printer was also a stationer 
 and bookbinder, and the three occupations were 
 hardly clearly defined or definitely separated within 
 the first hundred years after the invention of printing. 
 Books always required some kind of binding, and the 
 early printer sold his books to the purchaser ready 
 bound, though copies seem always to have been 
 obtainable in sheets by such as wished them in that 
 state. The binder ornamented his books in certain 
 ways and with a limited number of stamps, and 
 there is no reason why a careful study should not 
 make his binding ornamentation as easily recognisable 
 as his woodcuts or his type. Of course the majority 
 of early bindings are unsigned, and therefore it is 
 not often possible to assign particular bindings to 
 particular men ; but comparison may enable us to 
 attribute them to particular districts and even to 
 particular places, so that they may often afford 
 additional evidence towards placing books which 
 contain no information of their origin. 
 
 186
 
 1 86 Early Printed Books 
 
 A very little attention paid to a binding might 
 often result in most valuable information, and with 
 the destruction of the binding the information dis- 
 appears. Many years ago there came into the hands 
 of a certain Mr. Horn a very valuable volume con- 
 sisting of three block-books, the Biblia Pauperum t 
 the Ars Moriendi, and the Apocalypse, all bound 
 together, and in their original binding, which was 
 dated. Incredible as it may seem, the volume was 
 split up and the binding destroyed. Mr. Horn 
 asserted from memory that the date was 1428 ; of the 
 first three figures he was sure, and of the last he 
 was more or less certain. Naturally the date has 
 been questioned, and it has been surmised that the 
 2 must have been some other figure which Mr. 
 Horn deciphered incorrectly. The destruction of 
 the binding made it impossible that this question 
 could ever be set at rest, and a very important date 
 in the history of printing was lost absolutely. 
 
 In the last century no regard whatever seems to 
 have been paid to old bindings, the very fact of 
 their being old prejudiced librarians against them ; 
 if they became damaged or worn they were not 
 repaired, but destroyed, and the book rebound. Nor 
 did they fare better in earlier times. Somewhere 
 in the first half of the seventeenth century all the 
 manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library 
 were uniformly rebound in rough calf, to the utter 
 destruction of every trace of their former history. 
 
 Casley, in his catalogue of the manuscripts in the
 
 The Study of Bookbinding 187 
 
 Royal Library, specially mentions a curious old 
 binding, with an inscription showing that it was made 
 at Oxford, in Catte Street, in 1467. Even the 
 special note in the catalogue did not save this 
 binding, which, if it had been preserved, would have 
 been one of the earliest, if not the earliest, dated 
 English example. 
 
 There is no need to multiply examples to show 
 how widespread the destruction of old bindings has 
 been as regards public libraries; indeed, their escaping 
 without observation was their only chance of escaping 
 without destruction. In private libraries much the 
 same thing has happened. The great collectors of 
 the period of Dibdin thought nothing worthy of 
 notice unless 'encased' in a russia or morocco 
 leather covering by Lewis or some bookbinder of 
 the time. Nor are collectors of the same opinion 
 now obsolete, for many of our better known binders 
 can show specimens of rare and interesting old 
 bindings which they have been ordered to strip 
 off and replace with something new. Ignorance is 
 the cause of much of what we lament So many 
 collectors are ruled entirely by the advice of their 
 booksellers and binders, and these in their turn 
 are influenced purely by commercial instincts. 
 Collectors with knowledge or opinions of their own 
 are beginning to see that the one thing which 
 makes a book valuable (not simply in the way of 
 pounds, shillings, and pence) is that it shall be, as 
 far as possible, in its original condition. Our greatest
 
 1 88 Early Printed Books 
 
 books of the seventeenth century were issued in 
 simple calf bindings, with no attempt at ornamentation 
 but a plain line ruled down the cover about an inch 
 from the back. If a collector wants modern 
 ornamental bindings, let him put them on modern 
 books, there only are they not out of place. 
 
 About the German binders, who necessarily con- 
 cern us most at the time of the invention of printing, 
 we know very little ; but, on the other hand, there is 
 a great deal to be learnt. Their bindings, both of 
 pigskin and calf, are impressed with a large number 
 of very beautiful and carefully executed dies, which 
 could with a little care be separated into groups. 
 Many of them, curiously enough, are very similar to 
 some used on London and Durham bindings of the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There are the same 
 palm -leaf dies and drop -shaped stamps containing 
 dragons. 
 
 It is in Germany that the earliest dated bindings 
 are found. A copy of the Eggesteyn forty-one line 
 Bible, in the Cambridge University Library, has the 
 date 1464 impressed on the metal bosses which pro- 
 tect the corners ; and as the book is without a colo- 
 phon, this date is of importance. A binder named 
 Jean Richenbach dated all his bindings, and added, 
 as a rule, the name of the person for whom they were 
 bound. The earliest date we have for him is 1467, 
 and they run from that year to 1475. Johannes 
 Fogel is another name often found on early German 
 bindings. A few printers' names occur, such as
 
 The Study of Bookbinding 1 89 
 
 Ambrose Keller, Veldener, Zainer, Amorbach. 
 About the time of Koburger, great changes were 
 introduced into the style of German binding, a har- 
 monious design being produced by means of large 
 tools, and the use of small dies given up. The 
 custom was also introduced of printing the title on 
 the side in gold. The panel stamp, so popular in 
 other countries, was not much used in Germany for 
 calf books ; it is found, however, on innumerable 
 pigskin and parchment bindings of the latter half of 
 the sixteenth century. The earliest of the bindings 
 of this class have often the boards of wood ; at a 
 later date they are almost invariably of paper or 
 millboard. On early French books the work is 
 finer, but as a rule less interesting ; but the panel - 
 stamps, especially the early ones, are very good. A 
 very large number are signed in full. One with the 
 name of Alexandre Alyat, a Paris stationer, is parti- 
 cularly fine, as are also the series belonging to Jean 
 Norins. The Norman binders produced work very 
 like the English, no doubt because many of the 
 books printed there were intended especially for the 
 English market. 
 
 The bookbinding of the Low Countries was always 
 fine ; but the great improvement which was first 
 introduced there was the use of the panel stamp, 
 invented about the middle of the fourteenth century. 
 It was not till after the introduction of printing, and 
 when books were issued of a small size, that this 
 invention became of real importance; but at the
 
 1 90 Early Printed Books 
 
 end of the fifteenth and during the first twenty or 
 thirty years of the sixteenth centuries, innumerable 
 bindings of this class were produced. The majority 
 of Netherlandish panels are not pictorial, but are 
 ornamented with a double row of fabulous beasts 
 and birds in circles of foliage ; round this runs a 
 legend, very often containing the binder's name. 
 Discere ne cesses cura sapientia crescit Martinus 
 Vulcanius is on one binding ; on another, Ob laudem 
 christ i hunc librum recte ligavi Johannes Bollcaert. 
 Some binders give not only their name, but the 
 place 3\&Q Johannes de Wowdix Antwerpie me fecit, 
 Though there are few pictorial Flemish panels, some 
 of these are not without interest A number were 
 produced by a binder whose initials are I. P., and 
 who was connected in some way with the Augus- 
 tinian Monastery of St. Gregory and St. Martin at 
 Louvain. One which contains a medallion head, a 
 small figure of Cleopatra, and a good deal of arab- 
 esque ornament of foliage, is his best ; while another 
 panel, large enough for a quarto book, with a border 
 of chain work, and his initials on a shield in the 
 centre, is his rarest, and is in its way very artistic. 
 At a still later date the binders in the Low Countries 
 produced some panels, which, though still pictorial, 
 show how rapidly the art was being debased. The 
 designs are ill drawn, and the inscription, origin- 
 ally an important part, has come to be degraded 
 into a piece of ornamentation without meaning, cut 
 by the engraver purely with that object, ignoring the
 
 The Study of Bookbinding 191 
 
 individual letters or legibility of the inscription, and 
 anxious only that the finish which an inscription 
 gave to his models might be apparent to the eye 
 in his copies. A similar debasement is not un- 
 common in late English examples. 
 
 Italian and Spanish binding, though interesting in 
 itself, affords little information as regards printers 
 or 'stationers. No bindings were signed, and the 
 designs are in all cases so similar as to afford little 
 clue to the place from which they originally 
 came. 
 
 The earliest English bindings are extremely inter- 
 esting and distinctive. Caxton, our first printer, 
 always bound his books in leather, never making use 
 of vellum or pigskin. Bindings of wrapping vellum, 
 which he is erroneously said to have made, were not 
 used in England till a very much later period. His 
 bindings, if ornamented at all, were ruled with 
 diagonal lines, and in the centre of each compart- 
 ment thus formed a die was impressed. A border 
 was often placed round the side, formed from 
 triangular stamps pointing alternately inwards and 
 outwards, these stamps containing the figure of a 
 dragon. 
 
 The number of bindings which can with certainty 
 be ascribed to Caxton is necessarily small. We 
 can, in the first place, only take those on books 
 printed by him, and which contain, besides this, dis- 
 tinct evidence, from the end-papers or fragments 
 used in the binding, that they came from his work-
 
 1 9 2 Early Printed Books 
 
 shop. Under this class we can place the cover of 
 the Boethius, discovered in the Grammar School at 
 St. Alban's, an edition of the Festial in the British 
 Museum, and a few others; and from the stamps 
 used on these we can identify others which have no 
 other indication. It must always be remembered 
 that these dies were almost indestructible, and 
 therefore were often in use long after their original 
 owner was dead. The Oxford bindings, though very 
 English in design, are stamped with dies Nether- 
 landish in origin. An ornament of three small 
 circles arranged in a triangle occurs very often on 
 these bindings, and is a very distinctive one. These 
 bindings when in their original condition are almost 
 always, like those of the Netherlands, lined with 
 vellum, and have vellum guards to the centre of the 
 quires. The only two copies known of one of 
 Caxton's indulgences were found pasted face down- 
 wards, used to line the binding of a Netherland 
 printed book. Another binder, about the end of the 
 fifteenth century, whose initials, G. W., and mark 
 occur on a shield - shaped die, used always printed 
 matter to line his bindings and make end-papers, 
 though they were not necessarily on vellum. All the 
 leaves now known of the Machlinia Horce ad usum 
 Sarum whose provenance can be ascertained, came 
 from bindings by this man, scattered about in 
 different parts of the country. It is not known in 
 what part of the country he worked. 
 
 Trade bindings between 1500 and 1540 form an
 
 PYNSON BINDING.
 
 The Study of Bookbinding 193 
 
 important series. All small books were stamped with 
 a panel on the sides, and these often have the initials 
 or mark of the binder. Pynson used a stamp with his 
 device upon it ; many others used two panels, with the 
 arms of England on one side and the Tudor rose on 
 the other, both with supporters. On the majority of 
 these panels, below the rose, is the binder's mark and 
 initials ; on the other side, below the shield, his initials 
 alone. Not many of these binders' or stationers' 
 names have been discovered, and there are few 
 materials to enable us to do so. Pynson and Julian 
 Notary's bindings have the same devices as they used 
 in their books, and some of Jacobi's have the mark 
 which occurs on the title-page to the Lyndewode of 
 1506 printed for him. Reynes' various marks are 
 well known and of common occurrence. 
 
 Without a distinguishing mark of some kind 
 beyond the initials, it is hopeless to try and ascribe 
 bindings to particular stationers, though a careful 
 examination of the style or evidences as to early 
 ownership may help us to determine with some 
 accuracy the country at least from which the bind- 
 ing comes. Even a study of the forwarding of a 
 binding is of great help. The method of sewing 
 and putting on headbands is quite different in Italian 
 books from those of other countries. Again, all 
 small books were, as a rule, sewn on three bands 
 in England and Normandy ; in other countries the 
 rule is for them to have four. The leather gives 
 sometimes a clue, e.g. in parts of France sheepskin 
 
 N
 
 1 94 Early Printed Books 
 
 was used in place of calf. Cambridge bindings can 
 often be recognised from a peculiar red colouring of 
 the leather. So little has been done as 'yet to classify 
 the different peculiarities of style or work in these 
 early bindings, that it can hardly be expected that 
 much should be known about them ; at present the 
 study is still in its infancy, but there is no doubt that, 
 if persevered in, it will have valuable results. These 
 bindings were for the most part produced, certainly in 
 the sixteenth century, by men who were not printers, 
 and whose names we have consequently few chances 
 of discovering. All that can therefore be done is to 
 classify them according to style, and according to 
 such extraneous information as may be available. It 
 is useless with no other information to attempt to 
 assign initials. 
 
 But while the bindings and the designs afford 
 valuable information, the materials employed in 
 making the bindings are also of great importance. 
 The boards were often made of refuse printed leaves 
 pasted together, and were always lined, after the 
 binding was completed, with leaves of paper or vellum, 
 printed or manuscript. On this subject I cannot do 
 better than give the following quotation from one of 
 Henry Bradshaw's Memoranda, No. 5, Notice of the 
 Bristol fragment of the Fifteen Oes : 
 
 'After all that has been said, it cannot be any 
 matter of wonder that the fragments used for lining 
 the boards of old books should have an interest for 
 those who make a study of the methods and habits of
 
 The Study of Bookbinding 195 
 
 our early printers, .with a view to the solution of some 
 of many difficulties still remaining unsettled in the 
 history of printing. I have for many years tried to 
 draw the attention of librarians and others to the 
 evidence which may be gleaned from a careful study 
 from these fragments, and if done systematically and 
 intelligently, it ceases to be mere antiquarian potter- 
 ing or aimless waste of time. I have elsewhere drawn 
 attention l to the distinction to be observed between 
 what may be called respectively binder's waste and 
 printer's waste. When speaking of fragments of 
 books as binder's waste, I mean books which have 
 been in circulation, and have been thrown away as 
 useless. The value of such fragments is principally in 
 themselves. They may or may not be of interest 
 But by printer's waste I mean . . . waste, proof, or 
 cancelled sheets in the printer's office, which, in the 
 early days when printers were their own bookbinders, 
 would be used by the bookbinder for lining the 
 boards, or the centres of quires, of books bound in the 
 same office where they were printed. In this way 
 such fragments have a value beyond themselves, as 
 they enable us to infer almost with certainty that 
 such books are specimens of the binding executed in 
 the office of the printer who printed them ; and thus, 
 once seeing the style adopted and the actual designs 
 used, we are able to recognise the same binder's work, 
 
 1 Lists of Founts of Type and Woodcut Devices used by printers in 
 Holland in the Fifteenth Century. Memorandum No. 3. No. 14 in 
 the Collected Papers.
 
 196 Early Printed Books 
 
 even when there are none of these waste sheets to 
 lead us to the same conclusion.' 
 
 The number of books known only from fragments 
 rescued from bindings is much larger than is generally 
 supposed. Of books printed in England before 1530 
 more than ten per cent, are only known in this way ; 
 and now that more attention is being paid to the 
 subject, remains of unknown books are continually 
 being discovered. 
 
 Blades in his Life of Caxton [edit. 1861, vol. ii. p. 70] 
 gives a most interesting account of a find of this 
 sort in the library of the St. Alban's Grammar School. 
 ' After examining a few interesting books, I pulled out 
 one which was lying flat upon the top of others. It 
 was in a most deplorable state, covered thickly with a 
 damp, sticky dust, and with a considerable portion of 
 the back rotted away by wet. The white decay fell in 
 lumps on the floor as the unappreciated volume was 
 opened. It proved to be Geoffrey Chaucer's English 
 translation of Boecius de consolatione Philosophies, 
 printed by Caxton, in the original binding as issued 
 from Caxton's workshop, and uncut ! . . . On dis- 
 secting the covers they were found to be composed 
 entirely of waste sheets from Caxton's press, 
 two or three being printed on one side only. The 
 two covers yielded no less than fifty-six half-sheets of 
 printed paper, proving the existence of three works 
 from Caxton's press quite unknown before.' 
 
 Off a stall in Booksellers Row the writer some few 
 years ago bought for a couple of shillings an imperfect
 
 The Study of Bookbinding 197 
 
 foreign printed folio of about 1510 in an original 
 stamped binding, lined at each end with printed 
 leaves. From one end came the title-page and 
 another leaf of an unknown English Donatus printed 
 by Guillam Faques ; from the other end, two leaves, 
 one having the mark and colophon of a hitherto 
 unknown book printed by Richard Faques, and 
 which is at present the earliest book known to 
 have been issued from his press. The finding 
 of these two fragments is further of interest as 
 showing a connection between the two printers called 
 Faques. 
 
 Nor do these early fragments always come out of 
 very old bindings. From a sixpenny box at Salis- 
 bury the writer bought a large folio of divinity, 
 printed about 1700, in its original plain calf binding. 
 The end leaves were complete pages of the first book 
 printed in London, the Qucstiones Antonii Andrea, 
 printed by Lettou in 1480. 
 
 The boards of a book in Westminster Abbey 
 Library, which must have been bound at Cambridge 
 in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, were 
 composed of leaves of the Pontanus de Roma, one of 
 the ' Costeriana.' 
 
 Service-books were very largely used by the book- 
 binders, for the many Acts passed for their mutilation 
 or destruction soon turned the majority of copies into 
 waste paper. Several copies of Henry VII I. 's Letters 
 to Martin Luther of 1526, which remain in their 
 original bindings, have their boards made of such
 
 198 Early Printed Books 
 
 material, a practical commentary on the King's 
 opinions. 
 
 Manuscripts, many of the utmost importance, have 
 been cut up by the bookbinders ; sometimes in early 
 days the librarian handed out what he considered a 
 useless manuscript to the bookbinder whom he em- 
 ployed. Bradshaw notes that Edward VI. 's own 
 copy of the Stephen's Greek Testament of 15 50 con- 
 tains in the binding large fragments of an early 
 manuscript of Horace and Persius. Vellum was 
 often used in early books to line the centre of each 
 quire so as to prevent the paper being cut by the 
 thread used for the sewing. Many pieces of Donatuses 
 and Indulgences have been found in this manner cut 
 up into long strips about half an inch wide. The 
 copy of the Gotz Bible of 1480 in Jesus College, 
 Cambridge, bound in London by Lettou, has the 
 centres of the quires lined with strips of two editions 
 of an indulgence printed by him, and which are 
 otherwise unknown. 
 
 When the leaves used to line the boards of an 
 old book are valuable or important, they should 
 be carefully taken out, if this can be done without 
 injury to the binding or to the fragments. A note 
 should at once be put on the fragments stating from 
 what book they were taken, and a note should also 
 be put in the book stating what fragments were taken 
 from it. In soaking off leaves of vellum, warm water 
 must on no account be used, as it causes the vellum 
 to shrink up. Indeed, it is better to use cold water
 
 The Stiidy of Bookbinding 199 
 
 for everything ; it necessitates a much greater expendi- 
 ture of time, but it is very much safer. 
 
 If the fragments are not of much importance, they 
 should not be taken from the binding, for the removal, 
 however carefully done, must tend to hurt the book. 
 It will be sufficient to make a note of their existence 
 for reference at any time. When important frag- 
 ments are extracted, it is best to bind them up 
 separately and place them on the shelves, and not 
 keep them loose in boxes or drawers, or pasted into 
 scrap-books. For many typographical purposes the 
 fragment is as useful as the complete book. 
 
 In conclusion, a word may be said on the methods 
 of treating and preserving old bindings. In the first 
 place, a binding should never be touched or repaired 
 unless it is absolutely necessary ; and if it is of any 
 value, it should be kept in a plain case. These cases 
 should always be made so that the side opens, not, as 
 is more usual, open only at the end, for then every 
 time the book is taken out the sides are rubbed. If 
 they are made in the form of a book with overlapping 
 edges, they can be lettered on the back and stand on 
 the shelves with other books. 
 
 If it is necessary that the binding should be re- 
 paired, nothing should be destroyed. If, for example, 
 a portion of the back has been lost, what remains 
 should be kept, and not an entirely new back put on. 
 In repairing calf bindings, morocco should be used, 
 as near the colour of the original as possible, and the 
 grain should be pressed out. The old end-papers
 
 2oo Early Printed Books 
 
 should, of course, be retained, and nothing of any 
 kind destroyed which affords a link in the history of 
 the book. No attempt should be made to ornament 
 the repaired portion so as to resemble the rest of the 
 binding ; it serves no useful purpose, and takes away 
 considerably from the good appearance and value of 
 what is left, for a binding which has been ' doctored ' 
 must always be looked upon with some mistrust. 
 
 An old calf book should never be varnished; it 
 does not really help to preserve it, and it gives it an 
 unsightly appearance, besides tending to fill up the 
 more delicate details in the ornamentation. Some 
 writers recommend that old bindings should be rubbed 
 with vaseline or other similar preparations. Nothing 
 is better than good furniture cream or paste. A few 
 drops should be lightly rubbed on the binding with 
 a piece of flannel ; it should be left for a few minutes, 
 until nearly dry, and then rubbed with a soft dry cloth. 
 Not only does this soften the leather and prevent it 
 getting friable, but it puts an excellent surface and 
 polish upon it, quite unlike that produced by varnish. 
 When a binding is in good condition and the surface 
 not rubbed through, it is best to leave it alone; if 
 any dusting or rubbing has to be done, it should be 
 done with a silk handkerchief.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE COLLECTING AND DESCRIBING OF EARLY 
 PRINTED BOOKS. 
 
 IT is exactly one hundred years since Panzer, " the 
 one true naturalist among general bibliographers," 
 published the first volume of his Annales Typographici, 
 and in this period two distinct methods of biblio- 
 graphy have grown up. 
 
 The more popular, generally associated with the 
 name of Dibdin, treats specimens of early printing 
 merely as curiosities, valuable only according to their 
 rarity or intrinsic worth, or for some individual 
 peculiarity found in them. 
 
 The other method, of which Panzer was the first 
 practical exponent, was called by Henry Bradshaw 
 the Natural History method. Each press must be 
 looked upon as a genus, and each book as a species, 
 and the more or less close connection of the different 
 members of the family must be traced by the 
 characters which they present to our observation. 
 Bradshaw's own work is the best example of this 
 method, and a beginner can follow no better model 
 than the papers which he wrote on early printing. 
 
 In collecting or studying early printed books, one of 
 the most fatal and common mistakes is the under-
 
 2O2 Early Printed Books 
 
 taking of too much. The day is past when one man 
 will set himself to compile such works as Hain's 
 Repertorium Bibliographicum, or that very much 
 greater book, Panzer's Annales Typographici ; both 
 wonderful achievements, but unfinished and imperfect. 
 No one who has not had practical experience can 
 imagine the amount of information which can be 
 obtained by taking a small subject and working at it 
 carefully ; or conversely, the amount of careful study 
 and research that is requisite to work a small subject 
 properly. 
 
 Take as examples Blades' Life of Caxton and 
 Edmond's Aberdeen Printers^ the two best mono- 
 graphs we possess. They contain a very great deal 
 of most careful work, and sufficient material to enable 
 any one who desires to study those particular subjects 
 to do so thoroughly. 
 
 In collecting, in the same way, a beginner who 
 wishes his collection to be of real value should not 
 be too catholic in his tastes, but confine his attention 
 to one subject A collection of fifty miscellaneous 
 fifteenth-century books has not, as a rule, more 
 interest than may be associated with the individual 
 books. But take a collection of fifty books printed 
 in one town, or by one printer. Each book is then 
 a part of a series, and obtains a value on that account 
 over and above its own individual rarity or interest. 
 
 The arrangement and cataloguing of early printed 
 books is a part of the subject which presents many 
 difficulties. In many great collections, these books,
 
 Collecting and Describing 203 
 
 for purposes of bibliographical study, are absolutely 
 lost. They are not bought, at any rate not once in 
 twenty cases, for their literary value, but simply and 
 solely as specimens of early printing or curiosities. 
 But, having been bought, they are treated as any other 
 book bought solely for its literary value, and in no 
 other way, i.e. they are catalogued under the author 
 or concealed in mazes of cross-reference. If such 
 books are to be bought at all, they should surely be 
 treated in some way which would enable them to 
 fulfil the object for which they were acquired. 
 
 In the University Library, Cambridge, the fifteenth- 
 century books are all placed together arranged under 
 countries according to size, with a press-mark in- 
 dicating the country, the size, and the consecutive 
 number. Thus any new acquisition can be added, 
 and placed at once without disarranging the order on 
 the shelves. Any further subdivision, as, for instance, 
 under towns, is impracticable on the shelves, but must 
 be done on paper. 
 
 The catalogue slips can then be arranged under 
 towns and printers, so that any one wishing to study 
 the productions of a particular town or printer can at 
 once obtain all the books of the particular class in the 
 library. If he knows his books by the author's name, 
 they can be found from the general catalogue of the 
 library. In private collections, the number of books 
 is, as a rule, so small that they can be arranged in any 
 order without trouble. 
 
 In describing an early printed book, great care
 
 2O4 Early Printed Books 
 
 should always be taken not to confuse what is 
 common to all examples of the book with what is 
 specially the peculiarity of an individual copy. The 
 description should always be in two parts, the first 
 general and the second particular. The first part should 
 give the place, the date, the name of the printer, the 
 size, an exact collation ; the second, an account of the 
 binding, a list of the earlier owners, the imperfections, 
 if any, and similar information. 
 
 As regards the place, there does not yet seem to be 
 any fixed rule as to the form in which it should be 
 written, whether in Latin or in English. Many of the 
 older bibliographies having been written in Latin, 
 and the colophons of the majority of early books 
 being in the same language, we have grown familiar 
 with the Latin forms of many names. But now that 
 more books are being written in English, it seems 
 more sensible to use the English forms. The pedantic 
 habit of writing the name in the vernacular, as Koln 
 for Cologne, Geneve for Geneva, or Kj^benhavn for 
 Copenhagen, should be avoided ; it simply tends to 
 confuse, and serves no useful purpose. The great aim 
 of a bibliographical description should be to give the 
 fullest information in the most concise and clear form. 
 Since English books are presumably written for 
 English readers, it is best they should be written in 
 English, and the exhibition of superfluous learning in 
 the manner is almost always a sign of a want of 
 necessary learning in the matter. 
 
 The date should always be given in Arabic figures ;
 
 Collecting and Describing 205 
 
 and if there is any peculiarity in the form of the date 
 as it occurs in the book, it should be added between 
 brackets. The day of the month, when it is given in 
 the colophon, should always be put down in the 
 description, as it is often of great importance. In 
 countries where the new year began in March we are 
 apt to get confused with the dates, and forget, for 
 example, that the 2Oth of January 1490 is later than 
 the 2Oth of December 1490. 
 
 The beginning of the year varied in different 
 countries, and often in different towns. The four 
 most usual times for its commencement were : 
 Christmas Day (December 25), the day of the Circum- 
 cision (January i), the day of the Conception (March 
 25), and the day of the Resurrection (Easter Day). 
 The 2$th of March was, on the whole, most common ; 
 but in dating any book exactly, the rule for the 
 particular town where it was printed should be 
 ascertained. 
 
 An approximate date should always be supplied to 
 the description of an undated book ; but this date 
 should not be a mere haphazard conjecture, but should 
 be determined by an examination of the characteristics 
 of the book, and comparison with dated books from 
 the same press, so that the date that is ascribed is 
 merely another expression for the characteristics 
 noticed in the book. It is only after careful study 
 that accurate dates can be ascribed to books of 
 a particular press, and monographs on particular 
 printers must be consulted when it is possible.
 
 206 Early Printed Books 
 
 On the question of sizes there seem to be many 
 opinions. There was originally no doubt on the sub- 
 ject, and there is no reason for any doubt now. 
 
 There are two opposing elements at work, size and 
 form. Originally, when all paper was handmade, and 
 did not vary very much in measurement, books were 
 spoken of as folio, quarto, octavo, etc., according to 
 the folding of the sheet ; and these terms apply to 
 the folding of the sheet. In the present century, 
 when paper is made by machinery, and made to any 
 size, the folding cannot be taken as a criterion, and 
 the various sizes are determined by measurement, 
 the old terms, applicable only to the size by folding, 
 being retained. What has evidently led to all this 
 confusion is the application of the same terms to two 
 different things. 
 
 In describing old books, the old form size should 
 be used, being the only one which does not vary. 
 Under the other notation, a cut-down copy of a book 
 in quarto becomes an octavo, and thus two editions 
 are made out of one. 
 
 The size of an old book is very simply recognised 
 by holding up a page to the light. Certain white 
 lines, called wire-marks, will be noticed, occurring, as a 
 rule, about an inch apart, and running at right angles 
 to the fine lines. These wire-lines are perpendicular 
 in a folio, octavo, 32mo, and horizontal in a quarto.and 
 i6mo. In a I2mo, as the name implies, the sheet is 
 folded in twelve ; and in the earlier part at least of 
 the sixteenth century this was done in such a way
 
 Collecting and Describing 207 
 
 that the wire-lines are perpendicular ; the height of 
 the sheet forming two pages, as is the case in an 
 octavo, while the width is divided into six, instead of 
 four as in an octavo. The later habit has been to 
 fold the sheet differently, the height of the sheet 
 forming the width of four pages, and the width of the 
 sheet the height of three pages ; consequently the 
 wire-lines are horizontal. Among early printed books 
 the I2mo is a very uncommon form ; quartos are 
 most numerous, and after them folios. 
 
 It should always be remembered that the signature 
 has nothing whatever to do with the size. It is 
 merely a guide to the binder to show him how many 
 leaves go to the quire, and the order in which they 
 come. The binder found it convenient to have his 
 quires of from eight to twelve leaves each, and the 
 quires were thus made up whether the book was folio, 
 quarto, or octavo. Let us assume, for example, that 
 the quires were to consist of eight leaves each, then 
 each quire of the folio book contained four sheets, of 
 the quarto book two sheets, and of the octavo book 
 one sheet. A book on Book Collecting, lately published, 
 gives the following extraordinary remarks on finding 
 the size : " The leaves must be counted between 
 signature and signature, and then if there are two 
 leaves the book is a folio, if four a 4to, if eight an 8vo, 
 if twelve a I2mo, etc. ... I should advise the young 
 collector to count the leaves between signature and 
 signature, and to abide by the result, regardless of all 
 the learned arguments of specialists." The absolute
 
 208 Early Printed Books 
 
 folly of these remarks on the sizes of books will be 
 apparent to any one who has seen an old book. The 
 earliest folios printed in Germany and Italy are in 
 quires of ten leaves, i.e. there are ten leaves between 
 signature and signature ; in the majority of early 
 folios there are eight. Again, there is no folio book 
 in existence among early books (excepting the block- 
 books, which are in a class apart) with only two leaves 
 to the signature. 
 
 Wynkyn de Worde made up many of his quartos 
 in quires of eight and four leaves alternately ; most 
 early i6mos were made up in quires of eight leaves, 
 and had therefore two signatures to each complete 
 sheet. In the same way many 24mos were made up 
 in quires of twelve leaves. All these books would be 
 wrongly described by counting the leaves between 
 the signatures ; in fact, that method comes right by 
 accident only in the case of some octavos and a few 
 I2mos and idmos. 1 
 
 The collation of a book is the enumeration of the 
 number of leaves according to the way in which they 
 are arranged in quires, and this collation should be 
 given whether the quires are signed or not. If there 
 are signatures, there can be no difficulty in counting 
 the number of leaves which go to each quire; but 
 when there are no signatures, as is the case with most 
 
 1 On the subject of the sizes of old books, the reader would do well 
 to consult the Athenaum, 1888, vol. ii. pp. 600, 636, 673, 706, and 
 744, where some instructive and amusing letters will be found. 
 A further series of letters relating generally to the same subject appeared 
 in the same paper in the early part of 1889.
 
 Collecting and Describing 209 
 
 books before 1475, the collation is a more difficult 
 matter. The first thing to be looked at, if the book 
 has no MS. signatures, is the sewing, which shows us 
 the centre of the quire, 1 and we can then count from 
 sewing to sewing. This gives us only the halves of 
 two quires ; we must then have recourse to the water- 
 marks. In a folio, if one leaf has a watermark, the 
 corresponding leaf which forms the other half of the 
 sheet has none. Again, in a quarto, corresponding 
 leaves have either no watermark, or each half a one. 
 Judging from the sewing and the watermarks, there is 
 rarely any difficulty in making out the collation, the 
 first and last quires being the most difficult to deter- 
 mine with accuracy ; the others present no difficulty. 
 It is thus always best to settle the arrangement of the 
 interior quires first, and work from them to the outer 
 ones, which are more likely to be mutilated. 
 
 This method of collation by the watermarks is 
 very often useful for detecting made up copies. For 
 instance, in the copy of the thirty-six line Bible in the 
 British Museum, the first and last leaf of the first 
 quire have each a watermark, showing absolutely that' 
 one of the two leaves (in this case the first) has been 
 inserted from another copy. 
 
 In many old books which have been rebound, the 
 
 1 It was the custom of many binders in the earlier part of the present 
 century, when they had to rebind an old book, to separate all the leaves 
 and then fix them together in convenient sections, entirely ignoring the 
 original "make up." A very large number of books in the British 
 Museum were thus misbound, and even the celebrated Codex Alex- 
 andrinus was treated in this way. 
 
 O
 
 2 io Early Printed Books 
 
 outside pages of the quire are very much smoother 
 and more polished than the rest, and may thus be 
 distinguished by touch. This, though a pretty certain 
 test, may mislead, if the book has been misbound, 
 and should only be used in conjunction with the other 
 methods. A little practical work will soon enable the 
 beginner to find for himself various small points, all 
 of which, though hardly worthy of a lengthy descrip- 
 tion, are useful in giving information, but are only 
 useful when they have been acquired by experience. 
 
 In giving an account of a fifteenth century book, 
 a reference should always be made to Hain's Re- 
 pertorium Bibliographicum. If Hain gives a full 
 description, and such description is correct, it will be 
 sufficient for all purposes to quote the number in 
 Hain. Almost all the books fully described in that 
 work have an asterisk prefixed to their number, that 
 being the sign that Hain had himself collated the 
 book ; and in quoting from him the asterisk should 
 never be omitted. 
 
 The title and colophon should always be given in 
 extenso, the end of each line in the original being 
 marked by an upright stroke ( | ). The abbrevia- 
 tions should be exactly copied. Notice must always 
 be taken of blank leaves which are part of the book. 
 The number of lines to the page, the presence or 
 absence of signatures, all such technical minutiae 
 must be noted down. 
 
 In fact, the object of a good bibliographical descrip- 
 tion is to give as clearly and concisely as possible
 
 Collecting and Describing 211 
 
 all the information which can be derived from an 
 examination of the book itself. 
 
 The individual history of a book is of the utmost 
 importance, and should never be ignored. On this 
 subject I cannot do better than quote some words of 
 Henry Bradshaw, applicable more to manuscripts 
 than to printed books, but which explain the writer's 
 careful method, and practically exhaust all that has 
 to be said on the subject. 
 
 " These notes, moreover, illustrate the method on 
 which I have worked for many years, the method 
 which alone brings me satisfaction, whether dealing 
 with printed books or manuscripts. It is briefly 
 this : to work out the history of the volume from 
 the present to the past ; to peel off, as it were, every 
 accretion, piece by piece, entry by entry, making each 
 contribute its share of evidence of the book's history 
 backwards from generation to generation ; to take 
 note of every entry which shows either use, or owner- 
 ship, or even the various changes of library arrange- 
 ment, until we get back to the book itself as it left 
 the original scriptorium or the hands of the scribe ; 
 noting how the book is made up, whether in 4-sheet, 
 5 -sheet, or 6-sheet quires, or otherwise ; how the 
 quires are numbered and marked for the binder ; how 
 the corrector has done his work, leaving his certificate 
 on the quire, leaf or page, or not, as the case may be ; 
 how the rubricator has performed his part ; what kind 
 of handwriting the scribe uses ; and, finally, to what 
 country or district all these pieces of evidence point.
 
 2 1 2 Early Printed Books 
 
 . . . The quiet building up of facts, the habit of 
 patiently watching a book, and listening while it tells 
 you its own story, must tend to produce a solid 
 groundwork of knowledge, which alone leads to that 
 sober confidence before which both negative assump- 
 tion and ungrounded speculation, however brilliant, 
 must ultimately fall."
 
 INDEX OF PRINTERS AND PLACES. 
 
 ABBEVILLE, 90, 91. 
 
 Abingdon, 182, 183. 
 
 Alban's, St., 140. 
 
 Albi, 71, 90. 
 
 Aldus, 69, 70. 
 
 Alopa, F. de, 75. 
 
 Alost, 97, 101, 102, 103, 104. 
 
 Alyat, A., 189. 
 
 Amorbach, J., 58, 189. 
 
 Andrese, J., 112. 
 
 Andrieu, M., 93. 
 
 Angers, 88, 89. 
 
 Angouleme, 93. 
 
 Antwerp, 103, 108, ill, 112, 134, 
 
 171, 172, 181, 190. 
 Appentegger, L., 114. 
 Arndes, S., 122. 
 Ascensius, J. B., set Badius. 
 Audenarde, no, III. 
 Augsburg, 51, 52, 56, 61, 148. 
 Avignon, 19, 78, 80, 94. 
 Azzoguidi, B., 72. 
 
 BADIUS, J., 86, 174, 177. 
 Bamberg, 24, 39, 43, 45, 47. 
 Bamler, 41, 51. 
 Barbier, J., 143, 144. 
 Barcelona, 114, 115, 117, 121, 
 
 148. 
 
 Barmentlo, P., no. 
 Barnes, J. , 1 56. 
 Basle, 23, 57, 58, in, 172. 
 BechtermunUe, H., 34, 35, 36, 
 
 37- 
 
 Bechtermuntze, N., 36, 37, 54, 
 
 55- 
 
 Bedill, J., 143. 
 Belfortis, A., 65, 72. 
 Bellaert, 112. 
 Bellescullee, P., 89. 
 Benedictis, de, 72. 
 Bergman de Olpe, P., 51. 
 Beromunster, 58. 
 Bertolf von Hanau, see B. Ruppel. 
 Berton, J., 94. 
 Besanfon, 92. 
 Beverley, 178. 
 Bois-le-duc, 112. 
 Bollcaert, J., 190. 
 Bologna, 72. 
 
 S. de, 1 19. 
 
 Bonhomme, P., 83. 
 
 Botel, H., 115. 
 
 Bourgeois, J. le, 92. 
 
 Bouyer, J., 89. 
 
 Braem, C., 104. 
 
 Braga, 121. 
 
 Brandis, L., 57. 
 
 Brasichella, G. de, 70. 
 
 Breda, J. de, 1 10. 
 
 BreTiant-Loudeac, 90, 91. 
 
 Breslau, 57. 
 
 Brito, J., 106, 107. 
 
 Bruges, 105, 106, ill, 126, 136. 
 
 Brun, P., 115. 
 
 Brunswick, 157. 
 
 Brussels, 107, 108. 
 
 Bruxella, A. de, 76. 
 
 213
 
 214 
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 Buckinck, A., 63, 64. 
 Burgos, 117. 
 Butz, L., 114. 
 Buyer, B., 87. 
 
 CADAROSSIA, D. de, 79. 
 
 Caen, 89, 90. 
 
 Cagliari, 119. 
 
 Calafati, N., 117. 
 
 Caliergi, Z., 70, 76. 
 
 Cambridge, 180, 194, 197. 
 
 Garner, A., 72. 
 
 Castaldi, P., 59. 
 
 Caxton, W., 48, 49, 84, 105, 125, 
 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 
 I32. 133, 134, 135, 136, 137. 
 138, 139, Hi, 142, 148, 157, 
 159, 160, 165, 166, 167, 171, 
 172, 191, 192, 196. 
 
 Cayllaut, A., 84. 
 
 Cennini, B., 74. 
 
 Chablis, 88, 89, 91. 
 
 Chalcondylas, D., 75. 
 
 Chalons, 93. 
 
 Chambery, 90. 
 
 Chardella, S. N., 66. 
 
 Chartres, 90. 
 
 Chepman, W., 174. 
 
 Cividad di Friuli, 77. 
 
 Clemens Sacerdos, 68. 
 
 Cluni, 93. 
 
 Cock, G., 114. 
 
 Coeffin, M., 184. 
 
 Colini, J., 91. 
 
 Cologne, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 
 91, 96, 108, 126, 127, 149, 154, 
 
 155. 169. 171, 172. 
 Copenhagen, 109, 122. 
 Copland, R., 129, 142. 
 Coria, 118. 
 Cosselhac, A. de, 79. 
 Coster, L. J., 95, 98. 
 Crantz, M., 81, 83, 
 
 Cremona, 77. 
 Cres, J., 91, 92. 
 Creusner, F., 53. 
 
 DACHAVER, 88. 
 Dale, H. van den, in. 
 Davidson, T., 176. 
 Daygne, C., 175. 
 Delft, 109. 
 De Marnef, 175. 
 Deventer, 109, no, 172. 
 Dijon, 93. 
 
 Dinckmut, C., 16, 57. 
 Dole, 92, 93. 
 Dome, J., 157. 
 Dortas, A., 120. 
 Drach, P., 37, 54, 55. 
 Durandas, J., 90. 
 Durham, 188. 
 
 EDINBURGH, 174, 175, 176. 
 Eggestein, H., 39, 41, 42, 56, 
 
 188. 
 
 Egmondt, F., 171. 
 Eichstadt, 55. 
 Eliezer, 120. 
 Eltvil, 34, 36, 37, 54. 
 Elyas, C., 57. 
 Embrun, 93. 
 Erfurth, 21. 
 Esslingen, 55, 73. 
 Eustace, G., 85. 
 Exeter, 184. 
 Eysenhut, J., II. 
 
 FABRI, J., 122, 123. 
 Faques, G., 7, 197. 
 
 R., 197- 
 
 Faro, 121. 
 
 Fernandez, A., 113, 114. 
 Ferrara, 65, 72, 73. 
 Ferrose, G., 79. 
 Fevre, G. le, 84.
 
 Index of Printers and Places 2 1 5 
 
 Flandrus, M., 114. 
 Florence, 72, 74, 75, 76. 
 Fogel, J., 188. 
 Foligno, 71. 
 Forestier, J. le, 92. 
 Foucquet, R., 91. 
 Francour, J. de, 119. 
 Frankfort, 20, 32. 
 Frederick of Basle, 117. 
 Frees, F., 177, 178. 
 
 G., 177. 
 
 Friburger, M., 81, 83. 
 
 Fried berg, P. de, 33. 
 
 Froben, J., 58. 
 
 Fust, John, 23, 24, 25, 26, 46, 47, 
 
 80. 
 Fyner, C., 55, 56. 
 
 CACHET, J., 180. 
 
 Callus, U., see Hahn, U. 
 
 Caver, J., 143. 
 
 Geneva, 58. 
 
 Gerard, P., 91. 
 
 Gerardus de Lisa, 76. 
 
 Gering, U., 81, 83. 
 
 Gerona, 114, 116, 117. 
 
 Ghemen, G. van, 109, 122, 179. 
 
 Ghent, in, 112. 
 
 Gherlinc, J., 121. 
 
 G ho tan, B., 123. 
 
 Giunta, 70. 
 
 Godard, G., 85. 
 
 Goes, H., 177, 178, 179. 
 
 M. van der, ill, 134. 
 
 Cops, G., 50, 51. 
 Gossin, J., 1 06. 
 Gotr, N., 50, 91, 127, 198. 
 Gouda, 108, 109, 179. 
 Goupil, R., 184. 
 Goupillieres, 93. 
 Gourmont, G., 86. 
 Gradibus, J. and S., 89. 
 Granada, 119. 
 
 Grenoble, 93. 
 Gruninger, J., 43. 
 Guldenschaff, J., 51, 149. 
 Gurniel, J. de, 115. 
 Gutenberg, John, 22, 23, 24, 25, 
 
 31. 34, 35, 36, 40, 46, 47, 52, 
 
 53, 57, 7i, 82, 96. 
 
 H., I., 143, 144. 
 
 Haarlem, 97, 98, 99, 1 12. 
 
 Hagembach, P., 114. 
 
 Haghe, I., 183. 
 
 Hahn, U., 64, 65, 66. 
 
 Hardouyn, G., 85. 
 
 Harsy, N. de, 92. 
 
 Hasselt, no. 
 
 Heerstraten, E. van der, 104, 172. 
 
 Hees, W., 102. 
 
 Helyas de Louflfen, 58. 
 
 Hereford, 180, 183. 
 
 Hermann de Stalhoen, 32. 
 
 Hermonymus, G., 20. 
 
 Hertzog, J., 171, 172. 
 
 Higman, J., 84, 139. 
 
 Hijst, J. and C., 55. 
 
 Hochfeder, C., 91. 
 
 Hohenwang, L., 56. 
 
 Homery, C., 35, 36. 
 
 Hopyl, W., 174. 
 
 Hostingue, L., 175, 184. 
 
 Hug de Goppingen, J., 56. 
 
 Hunt, T., 151, 155. 
 
 Hums, P., 114. 
 
 Husner, G., 43. 
 
 JACOBI, H., 156, 193. 
 
 Jaen, 119. 
 
 Janszoon, L., see Coster, L. J. 
 
 Jardina, G. de la, 79. 
 
 Jenson, N., 48, 66, 67, 68, So, 
 
 96. 
 
 John de Colonia, 50, 69. 
 John of Speyer, 66.
 
 2l6 
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 KACHELOKFEN, C., 16. 
 Kaetz, P., 181. 
 Kaiser, P., 82, 83, 89. 
 Keffer, H., 23, 35, 52. 
 Keller, A., 189. 
 
 J., 148. 
 
 Kerver, T., 85. 
 Kesler, N., III. 
 Ketelaer, N., 102. 
 Keysere, A. de, no. 
 Knoblochzer, J., 43. 
 Koburger, A., 53, 189. 
 Koelhoff, J., 50. 
 Kuilenburg, 15, 16, 104, 1 12. 
 Kyrfoth, C., 156. 
 
 LANDEN, J., 155. 
 
 Lantenac, 93. 
 
 Lausanne, 58. 
 
 Lauxius, D., 174. 
 
 Lavagna, P. de, 73. 
 
 Laver, G., 63. 
 
 Lavingen, 56. 
 
 Lecompte, N., 171. 
 
 Leempt, G. de, 102, no, 112. 
 
 Leeu, G., 108, 109, in, 112, 171, 
 
 172. 
 
 Leipzig, 1 6, 20. 
 Leiria, 120, 121. 
 Lerida, 115. 
 Lettou, J., 129, 160, 161, 197, 
 
 198. 
 
 Levet, P., 84, 139. 
 Leyden, 109, 112. 
 Lila, B. de, 118. 
 Limoges, 94. 
 Lisbon, 120. 
 Loeffs, R., 104. 
 Loeslein, P., 69. 
 London, 6, 107, 141, 143, 145, 
 
 156, 160, 161, 178, 181, 188, 
 
 197, 198. 
 Louvain, 15, 103, 104, 172, 190. 
 
 Loys, J., 184. 
 Lubeck, 57, 122, 123. 
 Ludwig zu Ulm, 10, 56. 
 Lyons, 72, 86, 87, 94, 175. 
 
 MACHLINIA, W. de, 107, 161, 
 
 162, 163, 164, 165, 166. 
 Ma9on, 93. 
 Madrid, 119. 
 Mainz, 21, 23, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 
 
 35. 36, 37, 38, 39, 44, 46, 47, 
 52, 58, 60, 67, 71, 82, 95, 96, 
 
 IOO, IOI. 
 
 Mansion, C., 105, 106, 127. 
 Manthen, J., 69. 
 Mantua, 77. 
 Marchant, G., 84. 
 Marienthal, 37, 38, 108. 
 Martens, Th., 103, 104, 112. 
 Marti, B., 117. 
 Martinez, A., 114. 
 Mayer, H., 88, 118, 119. 
 Maynyal, G., 133, 171. 
 Melchior de Stanheim, 52. 
 Mentelin, J., 39, 40, 41, 42, 
 
 43- 
 
 Merseburg, 57. 
 Metlinger, P., 92. 
 Metz, 90, 91. 
 Milan, 68, 72, 73, 74. 
 Milner, U., 178, 179, 180. 
 Monreale, 77. 
 Monserrat, 119. 
 Monterey, 119. 
 Moravia, V. de, 120. 
 Moravus, M., 161. 
 Morelli, 89. 
 Morin, M., 92. 
 Murcia, 118. 
 Myllar, A., 174, 175. 
 
 NANTES, 93. 
 Naples, 72, 76, 161.
 
 Index of Printers and Places 217 
 
 Narbonne, 93. 
 
 Nassou, H. de, 104. 
 
 Nijmegen, no, 112. 
 
 Norins, J., 189. 
 
 Notary, J., 141, 143, 144, 145, 
 
 146, 193. 
 
 Novacivitate, G. de, 91. 
 Numeister, J., 71, 90. 
 Nuremberg, 10, II, 23, 43, 52, 
 
 S3, 9i. 108. 
 
 ODENSEE, 121, 122. 
 
 Orleans, 93. 
 
 Orrier, B. van, in. 
 
 Os, G. de, 109, 137, 139, 140. 
 
 P. van, 1 10. 
 
 Oxford, 125, 134, 147, 148, 149, 
 
 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 
 
 156, 182, 187, 192. 
 
 P., I., 190. 
 
 Padua, 77. 
 
 Paffroed, R., no. 
 
 Palma, 117. 
 
 Palmart, L., 113, 114. 
 
 Pannartz, A., 59, 60, 6l, 62, 63, 
 
 64,65. 
 Paris, 1 8, 20, 32, 80, 86, 89, 90, 
 
 91, 92, 133, 139, 171, 172, 174, 
 
 175. 177, 189. 
 Parix, J., 88. 
 Parma, 72, 77. 
 Passera, G. R. de la, 119. 
 Pavia, 72, 76. 
 Perigueux, 94. 
 Perpignan, 94, 115. 
 Perusia, 122. 
 Pfister, A., 24, 25, 43, 44, 45, 46, 
 
 47- 
 
 Philippus Petri, 68. 
 Picheng, 2. 
 Pictor, B., 69. 
 Pigouchet, P., 85. 
 
 Pistoia, D. de, 74. 
 
 Poitiers, 89. 
 
 Porres, J. de, 119. 
 
 Portilia, A., 72. 
 
 Pre, J. du, 84, 90, 91, 92, 94. 
 
 Printer of Augustinus de Fide, 
 
 50, 127. 
 
 Dictys, 50. 
 
 Historia S. Albani, 50. 
 
 Promentour, 58. 
 
 Provins, 94. 
 
 Puerto, A. del, 114. 
 
 Pynson, R., 92, 145, 156, 163, 
 
 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 
 
 176, 193- 
 
 QUENTELL, H., 51, 169. 
 
 Quijoue, E., 90. 
 
 R PRINTER, 42, 43. 
 
 Raem de Berka, G. ten, 149. 
 Ratdolt, E., 29, 69, 148. 
 Ravescot, L. de, 104. 
 Redman, R., 170. 
 Regnault, F., 85, 92. 
 Rennes, 90. 
 Reuchlin, 20. 
 Reutlingen, 56. 
 ReUwick, E., 33. 
 Reynes, J., 193. 
 Reyser, M., 55. 
 Richard, J., 92. 
 Richel, B., 58. 
 Richenbach, J., 188. 
 Riessinger, S., J6. 
 Roca, L. de, 1 1 8. 
 Rodt, B., see Ruppel. 
 Rome, 61, 64, 65. 
 Rood, T., 149, 151, 154, 155- 
 Rosembach, 115. 
 Rostock, 108. 
 
 Rouen, 90, 91, 92, 166, 167, 168, 
 i"2, 175. 1/6, 177, 184-
 
 2l8 
 
 Early Printed Books 
 
 Rouge, G. le, 89, 91. 
 
 P. le, 84, 89, 91. 
 
 Roy, G. le, 87. 
 
 J. le, 93- 
 
 Ruppel, B., 23, 57, 58. 
 Rusch d'Ingwiller, A., 40, 42. 
 Rychard, T., 182. 
 
 ST. ALBAN'S, 140, 157, 158, 159. 
 
 St. Maartensdyk, no. 
 
 Salamanca, Il6. 
 
 Salins, 90. 
 
 San Cucufat, 118. 
 
 Saragossa, 114. 
 
 Saxonia, N. de, I2O. 
 
 Schenck, P., 89. 
 
 Schiedam, 112. 
 
 Schleswig, 122. 
 
 Schceffer, Peter, 22, 23, 24, 25, 
 
 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 
 
 47, 48, 58, 80. 
 Schoensperger, J., 52. 
 Schott, M., 40. 
 Schussler, J., 52, 61. 
 Scolar, J., 156, 182. 
 Scot, J., 143- 
 Scotus, O., 69. 
 Segorbe, 116. 
 Segura, B., 114. 
 Sensenschmidt, J., 47, S 2 - 
 Seville, 88, 114, 115. 
 Shoenhoven, 112. 
 Siberch, J. L. de, 180, 181. 
 Snell, J., 121, 122. 
 Solidi, J., 89. 
 Sorg, A., 52. 
 Spindeler, N., 11$. 
 Spire, 37, 53, 54, 55- 
 Sporer, Hans, 10, 1 1. 
 Spyess, W., 36, 37. 
 Stockholm, 122, 123, 124. 
 Stoll, J., 82, 83, 89. 
 Story, J., 176. 
 
 Strasburg, 22, 23, 39, 40, 41, 43, 
 
 55, 76, 96. 
 
 Subiaco, 31, 52, 59, 60, 61, 62. 
 Sursee, 58. 
 Sweynheym, C., 59, 60, 61, 62, 
 
 63, 64, 65. 
 
 TALLEUR, G. le, 92, 166, 168, 
 
 175- 
 
 Taro, 121. 
 Tarragona, 115, 119. 
 Tavistock, 182. 
 Theodoricus, 154, 155. 
 Ther Hoernen, A., 50, 108, 149, 
 
 155- 
 
 Thorne, J., 157. 
 Toledo, 114, 1 1 6. 
 Tolosa, 88, 118, 119. 
 Toro, 121. 
 
 Torresani, A. de, 70. 
 Toulouse, 87, 118, 119. 
 Tours, 93. 
 Trechsel, J., 86. 
 Treguier, 90. 
 Treveris, P., 157. 
 Treves, 91. 
 Treviso, 72, 76. 
 Trogen, 58. 
 Troyes, 89, 90, 91. 
 Turre, J. de, 89. 
 
 UDINA, 77. 
 Ulm, 16, 56, 57, 61. 
 Ulric and Afra, Monastery of, 52. 
 Urach, 56. 
 
 Utrecht, 15, 16, 97, 99, 101, IO2, 
 103, 104, 107. 
 
 VALDARFER, C., 68, 73. 
 Valence, 94. 
 Valenciennes, 94. 
 Valentia, 113, 114, 118. 
 Valladolid, 115, 119.
 
 Index of Printers and Places 2 1 9 
 
 Vasqui, J., 116. 
 
 Vavassore, G. A., 17. 
 
 Veldener, J., 15, 16, 99, 103, 104, 
 
 107, 189. 
 
 Vendrell, M., 114, 117. 
 Venice, 17, 66, 67, 68, 69, 76, 
 
 83, 86, 96, 103, 148, 171, 172. 
 Verard, A., 84, 85, 167. 
 Verona, 77. 
 Vienne, 89. 
 Villa, J. de, 114. 
 Violette, P., 175, 177. 
 Vitalis, M., 78, 79. 
 Vivian, M., 93. 
 Vostre, S., 85. 
 Vulcanius, M., 190. 
 
 W., G., 192. 
 
 Wadsten, 123, 124. 
 Waldfoghel, P., 78, 79. 
 Wanseford, G., 177, 179, 180. 
 Watson, H., 178. 
 Weidenbach, 42, 43, 108. 
 Wenssler, 58, 117, 172. 
 Werrecoren, P., no. 
 
 Westminster, 128, 141, 144, 145, 
 
 148, 178. 
 Westphalia, C. de, 104. 
 
 John of, 103, 104. 
 
 Windelin of Speyer, 67. 
 Winters de Hoinborch, C., 51. 
 Worde, W. de, 7, 84, 109, 126, 
 
 127, 34, 135, 136, 137. 138, 
 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 
 157, 158, 167, 170, 178, 179, 
 1 80. 
 Woudix, J. de, 190. 
 
 XERBS, 117. 
 
 YORK, 141, 177, 179. 
 
 ZAINER, G., 51, 52, 56. 
 
 J., 56, 60, 189. 
 
 Zamora, 116. 
 
 Zarotus, A., 73. 
 
 Zel, U., 47, 48, 49, 60, 96. 
 
 Zeninger, C., 43. 
 
 Zorba, S., 120. 
 
 Zwolle, no, 149. 
 
 Printed by T. & A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, 
 at the Edinburgh University Press.
 
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