ILLINOIS

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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2017WILLIAM DANA ORCl'l— 4,1 E> R. A RY

OF THE
U N IVLR.SITY
OF ILLINOIS

GIFT OF
HARRISON E. CUNNINGHAM

655.1
Orlm
cop. 2zJkCaster <iJKCa\ers of the *Boo^Hooks by William T>ana Orcutt

GOOD OLD DORCHESTER
THE PRINCESS KALLISTO
ROBERT CAVELIER
THE FLOWER OF DESTINY
THE SPELL
THE LEVER

THE DESK REFERENCE BOOK
THE MOTH

THE MADONNA OF SACRIFICE
THE BACHELORS

BURROWS OF MICHIGAN AND THE REPUBLICAN

PARTY
THE BALANCE

IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK
THE KINGDOM OF BOOKS
THE BOOK IN ITALY
MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Aldus Manutius

From a copy of Virgil's Bucolics (1501), the first of the Aldine
Classics. This volume was bound by Roger Payne. On the
recto is inlaid an original portrait of Virgil by Fuseli, and on
the verso an original portrait of Aldus' similarly inlaid, and
painted by the same artist. The volume was formerly a part
of the famous collection of the Earl of Spencer, but is now
in the possession of the John Rylands Library, Manchester,
England. This reproduction, same size as the original, is
through the courtesy of Dr. Henry Guppv, LibrarianMaster Makers of
The Book

'Being a consecutive Story of the Book from
a Qentury before the Invention of Printing
through the €ra of the T>oves 'Press

By

William Dana Orcutt

Garden City	New York

Doubleday, Doran y Company, Inc.
1928COPYRIGHT I928, BY DOUBLEDAY, DORAN & COMPANY, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States

FIRST EDITION(c> 5 &. I

J? >y^J

" Are we not driven to the conclusion that of the things which man can
do or make here below, by far the most momentous^ wonderful, and
worthy are the things called Books ? '*

thomas carlyle

OS.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE author gratefully acknowledges his obligation to:

Richard Cobden-Sanderson, Esq., of London, and the late T. J.
Cobden-Sanderson, Esq.; Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, of
London; Messrs. Longmans, Green and Company, of London;
The Macmillan Company, of New York; Major George Haven
Putnam; and to the Trustees of William Morris of London, for
permission to make extracts from copyrighted material.

Emery Walker, Esq., of London, for personal material regarding
the Doves Press.CONTENTS

i.	Forerunners of Aldus

Why the Printed Book Came into Being

ii.	Aldus Manutius

The Evolution of the Printed Book

hi. Robert £tienne and Geoffroi Tory

The Printed Book Freed from the Limitations of
the Manuscript Volume

iv. Christophe Plantin

The Beginnings of Publishing

v.	The House of Elzevir

The Art of Printing Yields to the Necessities of
Publishing

vi.	John Baskerville

Bright Lights in the Dark Age of Printing

vii.	Didot, Bodoni, Ibarra

The Birth of Modern Bookbuilding

viii.	William Morris

The Art of Printing Comes Back into Its Own

ix. Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker
Printing as an Art Made Practical

Bibliography

II

43

77

103

133

155

183

207

231

248

Index

249I •FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Why the ^Printed "Book Qame into 'BeingI • FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Why the ^Printed 'Book Qame into Being

Books have become so intimate a part of our every-
day life that few of us stop to realize what it
would mean to be without them. As long ago as
1672 Thomas Bartholin wrote, "Without books,
God is silent, justice dormant, natural science at a
stand, philosophy lame, letters dumb, and all
things involved in Cimmerian darkness." Yet
books, as we know them, came into being less than
five centuries ago. The manuscript volume of the
sixth century, or even of the fifteenth, was a book,
but, because of the cost involved in its production,
its usefulness in disseminating knowledge and cul-
ture was limited to the class which really required
it least. Until the invention of printing liberated
the Book to the masses, civilization was held in
check by the wealthy princes and patrons of art,
whose prestige and power rested in perpetuating
the ignorance of the people whom they ruled.

To the ancients, the magnificent handwritten,

illuminated volumes were far more than objects of

[»]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

art or things of beauty: they were the tangible
tribute paid by the cultured class to the thought of
the author in its passage to the reader, using the
written page as vehicle. This gem of thought was
to them far more precious than any costly jewel.
These true booklovers gave permanence to it by
employing accomplished scribes to write it out,
letter by letter, on the leaf of parchment} they
enhanced its beauty by adding illuminated em-
bellishments executed by famous artists j and they
gave protection to it by enclosing the written and
enriched pages in sumptuous bindings, in which
gold, silver, and even precious jewels were some-
times actually inlaid.

This was the approach to the Book on the part
of the old-time collectors} but there was also a
practical use to which the handwritten volume was
put. In it were inscribed the basic truths upon
which rested the spiritual welfare of the world,
and by its means the Church recorded and
disseminated those doctrines which received its
approval.

Thus a large percentage of the original manu-
script volumes were duplicated by scribes in re-
ligious establishments. The primary object of this
duplication was the desire to secure, by exchange,
copies of other original manuscripts owned by
other monasteries. At first, the copying was done by
[12]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

individual monastic scribes, who devoted six hours
a day, as a part of their religious duty, to the la-
borious task of writing out on parchment the text
of the original which lay in front of them. In the
cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral the windows
which were assigned to these scribes are still
pointed out to interested visitors. No artificial light
was permitted, for fear of injury to the original
manuscript. Later, the more important monasteries
established scriptoria, or writing rooms, and this
greatly increased the facilities for producing addi-
tional copies of important manuscripts. It has been
said that more than half the literary work of Eu-
rope was executed in religious houses.

The scriptorium was usually a large room
located over the chapter house. In it were placed
twenty to thirty writing desks, at each of which a
monk would seat himself, with a sheet of parch-
ment spread out before him, upon which he in-
scribed the words that came to him from a reader
who sat upon a raised platform, assigned to this
duty because of his peculiar familiarity with the
subject matter of the volume. An " edition,"1 in
those early days, was limited to the number of
desks the scriptorium could contain. Silence was
strictly enforced, such inter-communication as was
required being accomplished by means of an elabo-
rate system of signs. If a scribe required a missal,

[13]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

for instance, for the purpose of reference, he ex-
tended his hands and made the motion of turning
over leaves, adding the sign of the cross; if he
desired some pagan volume, he supplemented his
movement of turning leaves by scratching his ear
like a dog!

It is easy to understand how so many errors crept
into the early manuscript volumes: the air in the
room became heavy, the voice of the reader became
tired, the hand of the scribe became cramped from
continued use. All this is of importance when we
come later to a consideration of the printed book,
which in many cases was put into type directly from
the handwritten volume, because it emphasizes the
necessity of the editorial work which had to be
done by the early printers upon the manuscript in
order to secure even comparative accuracy.

As time went on, the wealthy collectors desired
to add to their libraries volumes which were not
ecclesiastical in nature, and this resulted in en-
couraging secular scribes to take up the art of hand-
lettering. The volumes thus produced, as a rule,
are finer examples of the art, having been executed
under more favorable conditions. The work was
done by scribes and illuminators who adopted the
profession because they loved it, instead of by
those who performed it for six hours a day as a part
of their religious routine.

[14]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

The development of the handlettering in the
various volumes is a story in itself. The earliest
books in Western handwritings show the Roman
capitals, with which we are familiar from the in-
scriptions on ancient monuments. In the seventh
and eighth centuries, handlettering assumed na-
tional characteristics, out of which came the Mero-
vingian style in France, the Lombardic in Italy,
and the Visigothic in Spain. All these were involved
and complicated, and thus impractical. It remained
for Emperor Charlemagne, at the end of the
eighth century, to establish the Carolingian School
at Tours, with Alcuin of York at its head, from
which came the alphabet with its capitals (majes-
cules) and lower-case letters (minuscules) as we
know it today.

This is of supreme importance in the evolution
of the Book, as the Italian scribes of the fifteenth
century developed the Carolingian hand to its
highest point of excellence, and the early Italian
printers, in turn, based the design of their first
types upon this handlettering. Germany alone held
out against the Roman style, developing, during
the next century, the angular and less legible
Gothic letter. The Gothic design, as seen in the
early German examples, is a definite and direct
echo of the German handwriting. It seems curious
that Charlemagne should have summoned an Eng-

[15]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

lishman to Tours to put into practical execution his
wonderful vision of an eclectic handwriting to re-
place the prevailing Merovingian style; but Alcuin
was a man who had achieved international reputa-
tion as a poet and a writer. To him Charlemagne
also entrusted the installation of his ecclesiastical
and educational reforms.

The decoration of the manuscript volumes was
a thing quite apart from the handlettering. The
scribes who wrote out the letters of the text left
blank spaces for the initials at the beginning of each
chapter or section. These were later filled in by
other scribes, called rubricators or illuminators,
more accomplished in this particular phase of the
art, sometimes with plain rubricated initials, some-
times with elaborate designs in colors and gold,
running out into the margin and " lighting up "
the entire page. These artists also inserted the
headings, the liturgical instructions, and the colo-
phons at the end. They secured their minium (ver-
milion) from India and Spain, their lafis lazuli
from Persia and Bokhara, and the Byzantine gold
ink was made by the illuminators themselves out
of pure gold from the Orient. The large gold
initials were raised with a peculiar elastic substance,
which was later covered with gold leaf and highly
burnished.

Vellum (calfskin) was the usual material upon
(16]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

which these manuscript books were written and
decorated. In manuscripts earlier than the tenth
century the skins are peculiarly white and fine}
later, particularly in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, virgin parchment, very thin and soft as
velvet, made from the skins of stillborn kids, was
largely employed.

In binding the volumes of the Middle Ages,
leather was ordinarily used. This was laid over
solid wooden boards, with four or five bands across
the back. The sheets of parchment were firmly se-
cured by passing the thread through the leaves, and
then over these bands. The parchment strings,
which projected from the thread-sewed back, were
securely pegged into small holes and grooves cut
in the wooden sides. The more elaborately deco-
rated volumes were bound with ivory, silver, or
solid gold sides, frequently inlaid with precious
stones.

With such sumptuous art put into the making
of books, it is easy to understand why the wealthy
and cultured princes of the fifteenth century should
consider this tangible expression of the thought of
man as something which belonged exclusively to
them, and that they should have looked upon the
idea of perpetuating it through mechanical means
as unworthy of consideration. The attitude of these
true lovers of the Book is fully explained in the

[ 17 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

writings of Vespasiano da Bisticci, the last of the
medieval scribes and the earliest of booksellers. As
the agent of Cosimo de'Medici, Nicholas v, and
Frederick, Duke of Urbino, he brought together
three of the finest collections of manuscript vol-
umes in all Europe. Of Duke Frederick's famous
library, Bisticci tells us that thirty to forty copyists
were continuously employed during fourteen years
in transcribing Greek and Latin manuscripts, the
ecclesiastical and medieval authors, and the Italian
poets and humanists. The volumes were bound
in crimson leather with silver clasps, the hand-
lettering was on the finest grade of vellum,
gorgeously decorated with miniatures and illumi-
nations —" nor could you find a single printed
volume in the whole library, for the Duke would
have been ashamed to own one."

During all this time there was another influence
at work which, all unconsciously, paved the way
for the success of the invention of printing. This
was the so-called " humanistic movement," which
was the forerunner and the essence of the Renais-
sance, of which Francis Petrarch stands as the
father and the inciting force. Too little attention
has been paid to Petrarch in considering the origin
and evolution of printing. Had it not been for the
efforts of Petrarch and his enthusiastic band of fol-
lowers, who demanded a proper recognition of the
[ 18 ]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

rich humanities of Greece and Rome, the actual
manuscripts of many of the present standard clas-
sics would have been hopelessly lost to posterity.
Petrarch died in 1374. The Greek Empire was de-
stroyed in 1453. Between these two dates Italy
recovered the Greek classics and many of the
Latin; but there would have been little incentive
to preserve them except for the promulgation of
the humanistic creed.

It was through the influence of Petrarch that
Boccaccio became so ardent a Greek scholar, and,
after the death of his master, so enthusiastically
carried on his work as humanist. Benvenuto da
Imola, a pupil of Boccaccio's, gives a vivid picture
of the lack of respect paid at that time to original
manuscripts:

" I will relate what my revered teacher, Boc-
caccio of Certaldo, humorously told me. He said
that when he was in Apulia, attracted by the celeb-
rity of the convent, he paid a visit to Monte Cas-
sino, whereof Dante speaks. Desirous of seeing
the collection of books, which he understood to be
a very choice one, he modestly asked a monk —
for he was always most courteous in manners — to
open the library, as a favor for him. The monk
answered stiffly, pointing to a steep staircase, ' Go
up; it is open.' Boccaccio went up gladly; but he
found that the place which held so great a treasure

[19]MASTER MAKERS OF THE: BOOK

was without door or key. He entered, and saw grass
sprouting on the windows, and all the books and
benches thick with dust. In his astonishment he
began to open and turn the leaves of first one tome
and then another, and found many and divers
volumes of ancient and foreign works. Some of
them had lost several sheets; others were snipped
and pared all round the text, and mutilated in vari-
ous ways. At length, lamenting that the toil and
study of so many illustrious men should have
passed into the hands of most abandoned wretches,
he departed with tears and sighs. Coming to the
cloister, he asked a monk whom he met why those
valuable books had been so disgracefully mangled.
He answered that the monks, seeking to gain a few
soldi, were in the habit of cutting off sheets and
making psalters, which they sold to boys. The
margins, too, they manufactured into charms, and
sold to women. So then, O man of study, go to and
rack your brains; make books that you may come
to this! "

Francis Petrarch's place in the story of the Book
has nothing to do with his Italian poetry or with
his Rime to the immortal Laura. He died almost a
century before the printed book came into being,
and he could never have dreamt of what its possi -
bilities might be; yet through his love for the Latin
classics, which he knew by heart, and by his recogni-
[ 20]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

tion of the value of the Greek classics, which he
longed to know, he created a fervor for the hu-
manities, and so prepared the way that the printing
press, when it did come, was able to accomplish its
most important service for the world.

Born in 1304, Petrarch passed his youth near
Avignon. After receiving the ordinary instruction
of an Italian youth in grammar and rhetoric, he
spent four years at Montpellier, and later took up
the study of law at Bologna. Here he made his first
collection of books, finding the lure of the collector
far more potent than the demands of legal knowl-
edge. When his father paid him a visit here and
discovered the situation, the irate parent began to
burn the precious manuscript volumes, but the
youth's heartfelt protestations and promises to de-
vote himself more assiduously to his legal studies
preserved a portion of the volumes he had so
eagerly gathered together. That he tried to live up
to his promise is recorded, but the attractions of the
written word proved irresistible.

With his life thus devoted to the service of the
Book, Petrarch declared that he himself had be-
come a victim of the " general epidemic," being
afflicted with the " writing disease." " All the
world is taking up the writer's part," he said,
" which ought to be confined to a few; the number
of the sick increases, and the disease becomes daily

[ 21 ]MASTER MAKERS OF T H E| BOOK

more virulent." " Literary fame," he added, " is
but a harvest of thin air, and it is only fit for sailors
to watch a breeze and to whistle for a wind."

When twenty-five years of age Petrarch traveled
throughout Europe, making additions to his col-
lections. " Whether I am being shaved or having
my hair cut," he wrote, " and whether I am riding
or dining, I either read or get some one to read
to me."

Having learned from personal experience how
much this companionship with books meant, he
began to emphasize the importance of the higher
education of the people, and to urge the establish-
ment of public libraries. His influence with many
nobles of wealth resulted in largely increasing the
resources of several existing libraries, and of estab-
lishing others.

Speaking of his Greek volumes, which he could
not himself read, Petrarch said: " Homer is dumb
or I am deaf; I am delighted with his looks ; and
as often as I embrace a silent volume I agree, ' O
lustrous bard, how gladly would I listen to thy
song if only I had not lost my hearing.' " After his
travels, Petrarch returned to Avignon in 1337, and
established a new home for his books at Vaucluse.
Such was the fame he gained that three years later
he was offered a laureate's crown by Rome and by
Paris. " I start today," he wrote to Colonna, " to
["1FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

receive my reward over the graves of those who
were the pride of ancient Rome, and in the very
theater of their exploits."

Later, at Parma, Petrarch formed another li-
brary which he designated as his " second Parnas-
sus." Forced temporarily to remove his home to
Venice, Petrarch again resumed his travels in the
quest of books. It had been his habit to travel with
literally bales of manuscripts, and when he came
to leave Venice and break up the libraries there and
at Parma, he decided to leave his precious manu-
scripts behind. He therefore offered them to Venice
on condition that they should be properly cared
for and never sold or divided. This was the nucleus
of the famous Marciana Library.

Petrarch has been called the father of humanism
because of his successful efforts in popularizing
the Greek and Latin authors. The word " human-
ism " is not used in this connection in its philo-
sophic sense but rather as Symonds uses it when
he writes:

" The essence of humanism consisted in a new
and vital perception of the dignity of man as a ra-
tional being, apart from theological determina-
tions, and in the further perception that classic
literature alone displayed human nature in the
plenitude of intellectual and moral freedom. It
was partly a reaction against ecclesiastic despotism,

[23]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

partly an attempt to find the point of unity for all
that had been thought and done by man, within the
mind restored to consciousness of its own sovereign
faculty. Hence the single-hearted devotion to the
literature of Greece and Rome that marks the
whole Renaissance era 5 hefice the watchword of
that age, the Latterae Humaniores; hence the pas-
sion for antiquity, possessing thoughtful men, and
substituting a new authority for the traditions of
the Church} hence the so-called Paganism of
centuries bent upon absorbing and assimilating a
spirit no less life-giving from their point of view
than Christianity itself; hence the persistent effort
of philosophers to find the meeting point of two
divergent inspirations."

How Petrarch could have hoped to accomplish
his revival without having visualized the printing
press is difficult to comprehend, but the important
fact remains that through his personal efforts and
influence the recovery and preservation of classical
manuscripts became almost a fetish. He himself
collected the manuscripts of Cicero, thus continu-
ing in his maturity the delight of his youth in
reading aloud the writings of this, his favorite
author. After his death, his followers pursued their
quest with increasing zeal. Poggio Bracciolini, for
instance, Apostolic Secretary in 1414, uncovered
many lost treasures of Latin literature in France,
[24]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Germany, and Italy. In a letter to a friend, Poggio
writes of his experiences at S. Gallen:

" I verily believe that if we had not come to the
rescue, Quintilian must speedily have perished}
for it cannot be imagined that a man magnificent,
polished, elegant, urbane, and witty could much
longer have endured the squalor of the prison
house in which I found him. The books, you must
know, were not housed according to their worth,
but were lying in a most foul and obscure dun-
geon at the very bottom of a tower, a place into
which condemned criminals would hardly have
been thrust."

Other zealous literary crusaders, while relatively
less successful in the number of manuscripts each
recovered, ransacked the convent libraries of Italy,
the museums of Constantinople, and the abbeys of
France, Switzerland, and Germany to excellent
purpose. Each new discovery was hailed by the
ever-increasing band of humanists with joy and
thanksgiving. " As Camillus was called the second
founder of Rome," wrote Bruni to Poggio, " so
may you receive the title of the second author of
the works you have restored to the world."

Then came the invention of printing. It is easy
to understand why the humanists should have
welcomed the printing press as the most powerful
ally they could possibly secure.

[25]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

What John Gutenberg really discovered was not
the art of printing from type, but rather the fact
that individual types might be joined together to
form words, and individual words so combined as
to form sentences. As a matter of fact, the only
thing he actually invented was the composing stick
to hold the type in the hand after the letters were
arranged in proper sequence. He devised the
method of casting movable metal type, and im-
proved the mechanism of the hand press (already
in use for half a century in printing blocks) so that
larger sheets could be worked.

Centuries before Gutenberg the Greeks and the
Romans had printed from stamps, and the Koreans
had even cut individual characters in metal. If any
one of these peoples had possessed the wit to join
these individual stamps into words, as Gutenberg
did, printed books would have come into being
several hundred years earlier. In that case, the art
of printing would inevitably have found its way
to Constantinople, and it is quite conceivable that
the Renaissance should have applied itself to the
East rather than to the West.

Curiously enough, John Gutenberg is a much
more mysterious figure than many of his contem-
poraries who contributed less to the welfare of
mankind. We know that he was born in 1397 or
1398 of a noble family of Mayence, his father,
[26]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Frilo Gutenberg, holding the position of Tax Re-
ceiver, or General Accountant, of that city. His
youth was passed in the small village of Eltville,
whence he went to Strassburg. Here, in 1440, he
established himself in the manufacture of looking
glasses, and was soon recognized by his neighbors
as an inventive genius and a man of scientific
attainments.

During his business association in Strassburg
Gutenberg was hard pressed for money, and from
the court records it is apparent that he found it
much easier to borrow than to repay. It is by means
of the accounts of the numerous litigations in which
he became involved that we gain most of our au-
thentic information. When his partners in Strass-
burg brought suit against Gutenberg to recover
certain advances, the complaint states that he is
believed to have devoted the borrowed money to
experiments in " a certain art," and this art is sup-
posed to refer to the art of printing.

By 1448 Gutenberg was back again in Mayence,
and two years later he entered into his famous con-
tract with John Fust, a wealthy goldsmith of that
city. By this time Gutenberg was evidently pre-
pared to disclose the nature of the invention upon
which he had been engaged. Fust undertook to
loan him 800 golden gulden at six per cent, inter-
est, which sum Gutenberg agreed to use in estab-

[27]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

lishing a printing office, pledging the contents of
this workshop to his creditor by way of security.
When the amount advanced proved too little to
accomplish its purpose, Fust added an additional
loan of 800 golden gulden.

The continuing delays caused Fust to become
impatient, and in 1455 he brought suit against
Gutenberg to recover his original advance. Guten-
berg was without resources, and, in spite of his
vigorous protests, this earliest established printing
office passed out of his hands into those of Fust.
Some say that Fust's motive in foreclosing was not
highly altruistic — that Gutenberg had already
demonstrated by the uncompleted work in his shop
the importance and commercial value of his in-
vention, and that Fust opportunely exercised his
legal rights to secure fame and profits far beyond
the meager six per cent, interest.

Working with Gutenberg in the printing office
was a young artisan named Peter Schoeffer, of
whom no details are recorded beyond his connec-
tion with this early adventure. Fust, perhaps in
anticipation of his unfriendly litigation with
Gutenberg, brought about Schoeffer's marriage
with his daughter, Christina. Thus, having dis-
posed of the inventor, the worthy (or unworthy)
goldsmith provided himself with the practical as-
sociation necessary to continue the work which
[28]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Gutenberg had begun, and the famous partnership
of Fust and Schoeffer was established.

We may assume from the dates that the so-called
Gutenberg Bible was well under way at the time
the earlier partnership was dissolved, and that
Gutenberg is entitled to the credit for its type, its
presswork, and the general format; but there is
no definite evidence to confirm this. The volumes
bear no printer's signature, the date of 1456 being
established only by a rubricator's note on a defec-
tive copy now at the Bibliotheque Nationale, in
Paris. Gutenberg's name appears on no example
of printing in existence.

When Gutenberg's Bible was produced in 1456,
it was looked upon as an extraordinary mechanical
achievement, but no one could have foreseen its
full significance. The obstacles which at that time
surrounded the printing of books must have
seemed almost insurmountable. Each type letter
had to be especially designed (based upon the hand
letter of the scribe) and then cut in wood or metal.
The compositor himself had to be taught how to
combine the letters in his composing stick, strug-
gling with the difficulties of maintaining regularity
in the distance between the stems of the various
characters, as required to produce a harmonious
appearance upon the printed page. There were no
iron chases, such as are used today, in which the

[ 29 1MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

type is locked up and held rigid for the press, and
the only method then known was to bore holes
through the various type characters, through which
a brass thread was run, and then tied as tightly as
might be to hold the forme in place.

Fust and Schoeffer continued their business with
success, while Gutenberg is said to have made un-
availing efforts to reestablish himself. In 1460 he
became one of the equerries of Alphonsus 11, Elec-
tor of Mayence, and he is supposed to have died in
that city about 1468. A long controversy, intended
to deprive the unfortunate Gutenberg of even the
fruits of discovery, has been waged by bibliog-
raphers who have claimed that Laurence Koster,
of Haarlem, was the real inventor of the art of
printing. The preponderance of evidence, how-
ever, seems to show that Koster's books were
printed from wooden blocks on which the letters
were cut by hand, rather than from movable types,
which form the basis of Gutenberg's discovery.

In spite of the advantage of priority gained by
Fust and Schoeffer, and the other printing estab-
lishments which immediately sprang up in Ger-
many, supremacy in the art of printing quickly
passed to another country. Italy, in the last half
of the fifteenth century, had become the home of
learning and was the natural objective for work-
men, who, having served their apprenticeships in
[30]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Germany, sought out the country where princes
might reasonably be expected to become patrons
of the new art, where manuscripts were already
available for copy, and where the public was both
able and willing to purchase the products of the
press.

Credit for introducing the art into Italy, in
1464, is due to Juan Turrecremata, Abbot of the
Monastery of Saint Scholastica, in Subiaco, a small
hill town about thirty miles from Rome. Turrecre-
mata became Abbot of Saint Scholastica in 1455.
In the monastery at that time were several German
monks, who, before leaving their home country,
had learned of Gutenberg's discovery that mov-
able letters might be placed together to form
words, and words so combined as to form sentences,
as put into practical operation by Fust and Schoef-
fer in Mayence. Through these monks, the learned
Abbot became interested in the possibilities of the
new art, and he made overtures to two German
printers, Conrad Sweynheym of Mayence and
Arnold Pannartz of Prague, to establish within
the monastery what became the earliest printing
office in Italy. These two printers are supposed to
have been fugitives from Mayence after the siege
of 1462, and they may even have been employed
by Gutenberg himself. Sweynheym was a wood en-
graver by trade, so it is supposed that the responsi-

[ 31 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

bility of cutting the characters and setting the type
fell upon him, while Pannartz was the pressman.
The monks did not contribute to the actual labor of
printing, for that was against the rules of their
organization, but to the editing and correction of
the proofs.

From Subiaco the art of printing soon passed to
Rome, but almost immediately Venice assumed
preeminence. Venice was located in the direct high-
way between Germany and Italy over the Brenner
Pass, and would thus be one of the first great cities
a migrating printer would reach in his southern
wanderings. Add to this the fact that paper was
already a stable product of Italy, — being manu-
factured at Parma, Padua, Lucca, Pescia, and Fa-
briano, — and that Venice, because of the cheap-
ness of sea transportation, was the best market in
the world for the distribution of goods, and the
attraction of this city to the early printers is fully
apparent. To ensure the permanence of all these
advantages, the government of the Republic, quick
to recognize the importance of the new art, was
farsighted enough to encourage its development,
and to protect the Venetian printers in every pos-
sible wayj although, as we shall see, their earliest
action, except for an accident, would have been
disastrous.

Thus, almost immediately after the so-called
[32]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

" invention " of printing, Venice became the Mecca
of printers and the center of the new art. The sur-
prising fact about the preeminence of Venice in
the art of printing is that the city can claim so little
in the way of originality. The Venetian printers
followed rather than led, but easily surpassed those
who initiated. Printing was established in Subiaco
and in Rome at an earlier date, yet, when once
introduced into Venice, the art was practised there
in over two hundred printing establishments — a
greater number, perhaps, than in all the rest of
Italy combined! It is said that no less than two
million books were printed in Venice from 1470
to 1500. Rome preceded Venice in the introduction
of illustration, and Milan in the use of Greek type
— yet the most beautiful illustrated books, and
the most perfect examples of Greek printing bear
Venetian imprints.

The first printer in Venice was John of Spires.
Little is known of Da Spira beyond the fact that
he came from the town of Speyer, in Rhenish Ba-
varia. There is no record to show how long he had
lived in Venice before he began to issue books, but
John of Spires, on September 18, 1469, received
from the Senate of Venice the extraordinary privi-
lege of being the only printer permitted to exercise
his art within the jurisdiction of the city for a
period of five years. This is the earliest action,

[ 33 ]master makers of the book

already referred to, which might have proved
disastrous. As a matter of fact, John of Spires en-
joyed this sweeping monopoly only a few months,
for the extraordinary privilege conferred was
automatically canceled by his death in 1470. Had
he lived, such printers as Nicolas Jenson, John of
Cologne, Christopher Valdarfer, and Franz Ren-
ner would have been excluded from establishing
themselves in Venice, and would undoubtedly have
practised their art in other cities, to the distinct loss
of glory to the Venetian Republic.

The monopoly of John of Spires ending with
his death, it became possible for Nicolas Jenson, a
Frenchman, to set up the second printing establish-
ment in Venice in 1470. Nicolas was the son of
Jacob Jenson of Sommevoire, in the diocese of
Troyes. He served an apprenticeship in the Paris
mint, and was promoted to be the master of the
mint at Tours. In 1458, Nicolas Jenson was sent
to Mayence by King Charles vii of France to find
out what sort of thing this new art of printing
really was, and, if of value to France, to learn the
secrets and to take them home. After mastering the
art at Mayence, Jenson was prepared to introduce
it in Paris j but by this time Charles vii had died,
and Jenson knew that Louis xi, the new monarch,
would have little interest in recognizing his father's
mandate. The Frenchman then set himself up in
[34]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

Venice, where he contributed largely to the pres-
tige gained by that city as a center for printing as
an art, and for scholarly publications.

Jenson's residence in Venice was in the parish of
San Canciano, and his printing office was located at
San Salvador. Here he is said to have devised the
scheme of locking the pages of type in iron chases
(just as is the practice of the modern printer) in-
stead of fastening the individual characters to-
gether by passing a brass thread though holes
bored in their center — the method which the ear-
liest printers found so troublesome and awkward.

The great contribution of Jenson to the art of
printing was his superb Roman font, based upon
the writing of the humanistic scribes — the best
handlettering of the day. For the first time, in
translating each letter into metal, a type designer
reproduced it not as the scribe actually wrote it but
as he intended to write it.

Jenson died a rich and honored man. While
Sixtus iv was Pope, Nicolas was summoned to
Rome, where the title of Count Palatine was con-
ferred upon him in recognition of his services to
the Church in the publication of his devotional and
canonical works in 1473 and 1474. In his will,
Jenson asked to be buried in the church of S. Maria
delle Grazie, located on a small island of the
Lagoon between S. Giorgio Maggiore and S.

[35]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Clemente. The church has long since been de-
stroyed. The will also discloses the fact that Jenson
left three daughters and a son, Nicolas, who was in
London at the time of his father's death. Jenson's
brother Albert was the executor of his estate.

Another important figure in Venetian printing
was Erhardus Ratdolt, who came from Augsburg
and issued volumes in Venice from 1476 to 1485.
Associated with him during the first three years
were Bernard Pictor, also from Augsburg, and
Peter Loslein of Langenzoon. During its brief
existence, this famous partnership produced vol-
umes noteworthy for the beauty of their decora-
tions. Ratdolt may be said to have introduced
illustrated books into Venice, even though a few
isolated cases exist of earlier illustrated volumes.
Several Venetian books printed in 1470-1472 have
woodcut backgrounds over which illumination has
been put on by hand} but with the advent of Rat-
dolt this practice almost entirely ceased.

After Ratdolt and until Aldus much of the
printing in Venice was of mediocre quality. One of
the extraordinary facts in the history of the Book
is that so large a number of printing establish-
ments sprang almost immediately into existence.
For a time the volumes were of remarkable beauty
in conception and of high excellence in execution.
The invention of printing from type was looked
[36]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

upon by the early printers as supplying a new
method of conveying the thought of the author
to the reader, and they accepted the handwritten
manuscripts not only as their models but as their
rivals. In fact, they tried to make the printed page
resemble the manuscript as closely as possible.
Gradually, however, a market developed for
cheaper books, which destroyed the incentive the
printers previously had to keep the standard of
their work high. The great printers still held to
their ideals and issued wide-margin copies for their
fastidious patrons, but the majority, during this
period, made little attempt to maintain the high
quality of their predecessors.

Among the forerunners of Aldus there is an-
other printer whose work was epoch-making in
the history of the Book. William Caxton was born
in the Weald of Kent about 1422, and he died in
London seventy years later. He first demonstrated
his character and executive ability in Bruges, with
which city he associated himself when about twenty
years of age, and by 1462 he was the best known
Englishman in all the dominions of Burgundy.
Princess Margaret of England, a sister of King
Edward iv, later married to Charles the Bold,
became much interested in Caxton, and soon after
coming to Bruges she persuaded him to abandon
his mercantile associations and the high position

[37]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

he held as governor of the English merchants to
enter her personal service.

In his new position Caxton found the oppor-
tunity to devote himself to literary work, and in
1467 he began to translate the Histories of Troy.
When this was completed, four years later, he
presented a manuscript copy to his patroness, and
her delight with his work gave him such a high
reputation that the scribes could not work fast
enough to supply the demand for duplicate hand-
written copies. It was because of the limitations in
reproducing manuscript books that William Caxton
first became interested in the new invention of
printing. Colard Mansion had already practised
the new art in Bruges, so Caxton was not the pio-
neer. The Englishman, however, was in a position
both intellectually and financially to carry on the
practice of the art of printing much more success-
fully than the impecunious Mansion. He paid a
visit to Cologne in 1471 and carefully studied the
equipment and the work being done at the Zell
Press. Sometimes in connection with Mansion,
sometimes by himself, he produced several inter-
esting volumes before he returned to London in
1476, and gained everlasting fame by being the
first to introduce the art of printing into England.

Caxton's work does not compare in quality with
the Italian examples which were produced during
[38]FORERUNNERS OF ALDUS

the same period, but his volumes accomplished
much in nationalizing the language in which they
were printed. Up to that time there were in Eng-
land many confusing variants. This was all very
well so long as the national literature found ver-
nacular expression in the songs of minstrels and the
tales of professional story tellers j but when any
language takes on a printed form, some one of the
variants has to be selected, and the very selection is
bound to create a standard. Caxton's publications
established the English language.

[39]II • ALDUS MANUTIUS
The Evolution of the ^Printed "BookII • ALDUS MANUTIUS

The Svolution of the ^Printed 'Book

The great figure in the whole history of the Book
is Aldus Manutius, whose claim to fame comes not
only from his work as a printer, but also from the
profound effect of his scholarship upon the learn-
ing of the world, and his successful efforts to pre-
serve the Greek classics to posterity. He was born
at Bassiano, a small town in the Romagna, in 1447,
his baptismal name being Teobaldo, from which
came the abbreviated, Latinized form by which
he will always be known. The Manucci were a
noble Tuscan family.

The young Aldus, as a student, early showed a
distinct tendency toward learning, and at Rome
and Ferrara he distinguished himself, particularly
in the classics. Having mastered Latin, he studied
Greek under the famous Guarini of Turin. At
Ferrara, he formed a devoted friendship with a
brilliant fellow student, Pico della Mirandola,
Prince of Carpi, from which association may be
directly traced his later steps in life. It was through

[43]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

this friend's influence that, when Aldus completed
his studies at Ferrara, he became tutor to the two
young sons of Pico's sister at Carpi 5 it was from
meeting at Carpi the accomplished Greek scholar
Adramyttenos, a refugee from Constantinople, that
the full beauty of the Greek language burst upon
him} it was from his work in instructing his youth-
ful charges in Greek from manuscript textbooks
that he received his vision of what it would mean to
the scholarship of the world if these same manu-
script classics might be multiplied by means of the
new invention of printing} it was through the
sympathetic and financial assistance of the Prin-
cess of Carpi that he received his backing when he
established himself in Venice, to translate his vision
into practical expression.

Beyond all this, the years at Carpi developed
Aldus into an all-round, cultured gentleman. The
atmosphere in which he lived was so charged with
appreciation of the beautiful that life unfolded in
such a way as to make upon him an indelible im-
pression. Aldus was included as a member of the
Princess' charming family. Caterina Pia, herself
a student, kept in close touch with the education
of her sons, and the letters which passed between
her and the young tutor during these eventful
months, are, on both sides, full of sane philosophy,
sage counsel, and the essence of worth-while liv-
[44]ALDUS MANUTIUS

ing. The young princes were devoted to their tutor.
Albert, the elder, referred to him as " my most
excellent and most beloved preceptor and master,"
while Leonello always called him " father."

Pico della Mirandola spent much of his later
life in Florence, but the close friendship between
him and Aldus was kept alive by a correspondence
which discloses the nature of their relations:

" I send you," the Prince writes in 1491, " later
than I could have wished, the Homer for which
you asked. But, my dear Aldus, I am so much ab-
sorbed by my work that I have scarcely time to
breathe. For a long time, as you know, I have given
myself Wholly to literature, which has so imposed
upon me the obligation of reading and discussion
that my health resents it. You say that you are
about to apply yourself to philosophy. Remember
that this should be done only with this understand-
ing: philosophy should never separate us from the
truth of that which is mysterious. Philosophy seeks
truth, theology finds it, religion absorbs it."

While the tutor was under the influence of these
surroundings, examples of the new art of printing
fell into Aldus' hands — volumes printed perhaps
by John of Spires or Nicolas Jenson in Venice.
They came to him as a direct message, almost as a
command, to abandon his happy environment and,
during his remaining years, to apply his scholar-
ly 45 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

ship and experience to extending the world's hori-
zon of learning through the now accessible medium
of the printed book. " I have resolved," Aldus
wrote, " to devote my life to the cause of scholar-
ship. I have chosen, in place of a life of ease and
freedom, an anxious and toilsome career. A man
has higher responsibilities than the seeking of his
own enjoymentj he should devote himself to
honorable labor. Living that is a mere existence
may be left to men who are content to be animals.
Cato compared human existence to iron: when
nothing is done with it, it rusts j it is only through
constant activity that polish or brilliancy is se-
cured."

Aldus at once outlined his vision to the Princess
of Carpi, and he found in her a regretful but a
sympathetic listener. After all these years, it was
a wrench for both of them to terminate the delight-
ful relations which had always existed} but the
young princes had grown up, and Aldus had really
completed his work at Carpi. So the Princess en-;
couraged him to proceed with his ambitious plans,
and promptly offered to supply him with a modest
financial background, to which her brother Pico
and her two sons later generously contributed.
That Aldus fully realized his obligation is shown
in a letter, written years later to a friend who asked
for a discount on an order for books: " I cannot
[46]ALDUS MANUTIUS

give you these at a reduced price, because they
belong to me in common with several other per-
sons."

The Princess and Aldus discussed the details,
and the plans rapidly matured. It was important
for the embryo printer to place himself where
manuscripts were most available, and where he
could receive capable editorial assistance. This
made the selection of Venice inevitable. Starting
with the notable collection of Greek and Latin
manuscripts which Cardinal JJessarion had be-
queathed to the Venetian Republic on his death
in 1474, no city was richer in potential material.
Venice was also the center of a large Greek colony,
including many who were well educated and fully
competent to assist Aldus in his ambitious under-
taking. It was in Venice, therefore, that Aldus
settled, about 1488.

Aldus approached the art of printing with seri-
ousness and with a full comprehension of the dif-
ficulties involved. There were the type letters to
be designed and cut, the compositors to be taught,
the editors and correctors to be assembled, the
manuscripts to be selected, and last, but by no
means least, provision to be made for the sale of his
volumes. It required much courage for the young
tutor voluntarily to abandon his delightful sur-
roundings, and to embark upon a career in an

[47]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

almost untried field, obviously full of pitfalls, and
demanding for success much beyond the scholar-
ship and enthusiasm which were his undoubted
assets.

In those early days a printer expressed himself
in the design of his type as much as in the quality
of his workmanship. Aldus was not content simply
to copy what other printers before him had done.
His Roman face, it is true, was based upon the
same handlettering as Jenson's, but he introduced
originality by cutting small capitals to use with it,
which no one else had ever thought of doing. Then
it occurred to Aldus that the inclined, cursive hand-
writing of Petrarch would make an excellent type,
so he had it translated into metal, and called it
" Italic."

The art of printing, as such, would never have
appealed to Aldus if it had not offered him an op-
portunity to produce his beloved classics. Several
of the great Latin authors had already been
printed, but at this time Greek books had been
issued in only four places: in Milan in 1476, in
Vincenza in 1483, in Venice in 1484, and in Flor-
ence in 1488. ^Esop, Theocritus, Homer, and Isoc-
rates were the only Greek classics which had ever
been printed in the original j and even these were
composed in Greek type which was incomplete in
the matter of capitals, breathings, and accents.

[ 48 ]ALDUS MANUTIUS

Of his predecessors, Sweynheym and Pannartz,
Vindelin of Spires, Nicolas Jenson, and Erhardus
Ratdolt had introduced Greek characters in their
books, but none except Bartolomeo di Libri and
Leonicus Cretensis had attempted to print a com-
plete book in Greek. Aldus felt that he had a clear
field before him, and he settled down to prepare
himself to embrace his opportunity.

Gradually the Aldine Press began to shape it-
self. Aldus established himself in the old Campo
S. Paternian, now the Piazza Manin, in Venice,
near the church of S. Agostino. Here he set up his
presses, organized his business, gathered together
his staff, and made his home. Besides casting his
own type, Aldus had to manufacture much of his
material — the printing ink, for instance, being
made upon the premises. Most of his paper came
from the famous Fabriano mill, which is still in
existence — " hand linen (so the old records run),
made of pure linen and hempen rags beated in
pieces by dint of wood, and made stiff with glue
got from boiled hides." At its height, the Aldine
Press, including Aldus' family, housed thirty-
three souls, embracing the editors, the proof-
readers, the compositors, and the pressmen. True
to his ideals, Aldus permitted no word to be spoken
within the limits of the establishment except in the
i Greek tongue.

[ 49 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

As against its many advantages for a printer,
Venice presented one serious handicap — it had
no university. In other cities the early printers
drew freely upon the professors for editorial as-
sistance, and depended upon the universities to
absorb a considerable number of printed volumes.
Aldus was forced to retain learned editors upon
his staff, and to summon them from distant places.

The personnel naturally changed from time to
time. His chief compositor, fellow editor, friend,
and most important collaborator was Marcus Mu-
surus, a Cretan. Musurus was also a friend of Pico
della Mirandola, and Aldus had first met him at
Carpi. His labors were of the greatest value to the
over-worked head of the Aldine establishment,
and Aldus always recognized his debt of gratitude.
In 1502, upon the recommendation of Aldus, Mu-
surus was asked by the Venetian Senate to occupy
the chair of belles lettres at the University of
Padua, where his lectures, repeated in Venice, at-
tracted wide attention. " Scholars hasten to Venice,
the Athens of our day," wrote Aldus, " to listen
to the teachings of Musurus, the greatest scholar
of the age." It was from the handwriting of Mu-
surus that Aldus took the design for his Greek
characters.

The chief corrector for the Greek proof was
John Gregoropoulos, of Candia. Theodore Gaza,
[50]ALDUS MANUTIUS

from Athens, was numbered among the most use-
ful editors Aldus had. Johann Reuchlin, the fa-
mous scholar of Heidelberg j Hieronymus Ale-
ander and Pietro Bembo, both of whom later
became Cardinals; Scipio Carteromachus, and the
great Erasmus of Rotterdam, were proud to be
numbered among his associates and advisors. Eras-
mus put through the press the Aldine editions of
Terence, Seneca, Plutarch's Morals, and Plautus,
while Gaza devoted himself chiefly to the great
five-volume Aristotle. Erasmus is said to have
made himself unpopular with the loyal Musurus
by criticizing the meager table set by the financially
harassed Aldus. The Cretan retorted by remarking
that Erasmus " drank enough for the triple-bodied
Geryon, and did the work of only half a man."

Aldus enjoyed a long friendship with Johann
Reuchlin, who became the founder of Greek
studies in Germany. In acknowledging a letter
from him, Aldus writes in 1502: " I can scarcely
express my gratification at your friendly words
concerning the importance and the value of my
publishing undertakings. It is no light thing to
secure the commendation of one of the greatest
scholars of his time. If my life is spared to me, I
hope more to deserve the praise that you give me
for service rendered to the scholarship and enlight-
enment of the age."

[ 51 1MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

The greatest obstacle encountered by Aldus in
preparing for his Greek publications was the lack
of Greek lexicons and grammars. It was obvious
that these had to be written and printed before
editors could prepare the copy for the compositors,
and before the correctors could revise the proof
after the copy had been put in type. About 1480 a
Greek refugee named Constantine Lascaris had
compiled the first Greek lexicon ever issued, pub-
lished in Milan, which stands as the first work of a
living writer printed in Italy. Aldus found this to
be hopelessly inadequate, but he made of it an ex-
cellent basis for a revision the author now under-
took, under his supervision. This was the first book
printed at the Aldine Press. Then Aldus called
upon Gaza to prepare a Greek grammar, and this
was issued during the following year. Undismayed
by the manifold duties which overwhelmed him,
Aldus himself prepared a Greek-Latin dictionary
that immediately became the standard. It passed
through many editions, and was honored by being
pirated by the Giunta, famous printer-publishers
in Florence, who even copied the famous Aldine
mark of the Dolphin and Anchor.

The patience and restraint of Aldus during these
five tedious years of preparation show the charac-
ter of the man. Other printers might issue texts
filled with errors, using incomplete fonts of Greek

[52]ALDUS MANUTIUS

type, but not Aldus. He tested out his material
with Musaeus' Hero and heander in 1494, but his
first real example of what he could do was the
great Aristotle in five volumes, which appeared
during the years 1495-1498. As an expression of
affection, Aldus dedicated this splendid work to
his former pupil, Albert of Carpi.

Aldus came into the story of the Book at exactly
the right time. We have noted how much the
world owes to Italy for the spontaneous and ex-
traordinary evolution of the printed book in the fif-
teenth century. We have seen how Venice quickly
became the center of the new art, but it is even
more important still to understand that it was the
happy cooperation of the entire country that pro-
duced the final result. The humanists were scat-
tered all over Italy, and dominated the intellectual
life of the period: in Florence they were devoting
their energies to discovering manuscripts, founding
libraries, and encouraging the study of the Greek
language j in Naples they elevated the standard
of learning by their constructive criticism} in Rome
they brought learning nearer to the people by ac-
curate translations} in Mantua and Ferrara a defi-
nite system of education was begun; in Venice the
results of all this labor were made permanent,
being given to the world in printed form.

Thus it is to Italy as a whole rather than to any

[53]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

single Italian city that the gratitude of the world
is due for the benefaction of the Book. The contri-
bution in each center was vital, but it was the splen-
did coordination of all that regained the culture of
antiquity, classified and interpreted it, and then
turned it over in its entirety to all Europe. No finer
instance could be found to exemplify the human-
istic creed we have already studied: " to hold one-
self open to receive truth unprejudiced as to its
source} and, having received truth, to give it out
again, made richer by one's personal interpreta-
tion."

There was no more ardent humanist than Aldus.
He appreciated to the full the service his fellow
humanists of the preceding century had rendered
to the world by preserving the classical manu-
scripts. His was to be the privilege of giving these
precious gems of thought an eternal permanency.
He pondered over the sudden antagonism ex-
hibited by the great Italian princes to the develop-
ment of the new art, and quickly sensed its true
significance. He watched an intellectually shackled
people awake to the astonishing realization that
these gems of thought, hitherto available only to
the wealthy overlords, were now within their reach.
It was an amazing revelation, and the spontaneous
response on the part of the masses was so enthusi-
astic that it became terrifying to those who had
[5+]ALDUS MANUTIUS

previously counted upon their ignorance as essen-
tial to easy government. The man in the street,
hitherto compelled to study argument merely by
means of pictorial design, was now able to make
himself as familiar with the vital problems of the
day as those who had considered themselves his
masters j and with this new knowledge came a self-
reliance which the princes knew would eventually
destroy their prestige and power.

Aldus made application to the Venetian govern-
ment for protection in the publication of his Greek
volumes, and, when a monopoly for twenty years
was granted, this became the first copyright in
history. Just how valuable this concession was, and
how it operated, is difficult to understand, as we
find other printers, such as Calliergi, issuing Greek
volumes in Venice long before the expiration of
this period.

In his Aristotle Aldus demonstrated the ability
of the press to produce a machine-made book of
sufficient attractiveness to compete against the writ-
ten volume. Other volumes, such as the PlatOy
were even more beautiful, and some were deemed
worthy of being embellished by the art of the il-
luminator. Aldus might easily have curried favor
with the princes and wealthy collectors by confin-
ing himself wholly to expensive publications, but
this would have been in direct violation of his

[55]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

vision and a prostitution of his purpose in coming
to Venice. He never wavered in his determination
to produce volumes in Latin, Greek, and Italian —
well-made, but at so low a cost that any one could
purchase. " I will never desist from my undertak-
ing until I have performed what I have promised,"
he declared, " always unmindful of expense, how-
ever great, and equally regardless of labor, even
were I to live in ease and affluence."

The first volume in the Aldine classics was the
Bucolics of Virgil, issued in 1501 at a price of about
fifty cents a volume. This was promptly followed
by a long list of Latin and Italian authors. The
Greek series opened with the Sophocles of 1502.
These were set in the first Italic type ever cut.

It was a curious and happy turn of the wheel
that brought about the use of this newly cut type,
based upon the handwriting of the Father of
Humanism, in the Aldine classics, which were
destined to fulfil Petrarch's fondest dreams for the
preservation and dissemination of the humanities!

The type was cut for Aldus by Francesco da
Bologna, of the celebrated Griffo family. The
small, compact form of this design found immedi-
ate favor. Its condensed nature enabled the printer
to compress his subject matter into a smaller num-
ber of pages, and thus reduce the cost. This led
Aldus to drop the quarto format> and to issue his
[56]ALDUS MANUTIUS

volumes in octavo size, which innovation immedi-
ately proved so popular as to create a revolution
in bookmaking. The smaller volumes could be
carried in the pocket, were cheaper, and were more
available for everyday use. Aldus was granted a
monopoly in Venice for ten years on all books
issued in this form.

Few realize how immensely popular the Italic
face became in the sixteenth century. In Italy,
France, and even in England this cursive design
became the fashionable vernacular type, and it was
used in volume after volume. In the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, the tide again turned
toward the Roman face, the Italic being used only
for emphasis or for proper names.

Eager to make the most of his monopoly in
Greek publications, Aldus pushed the work for-
ward with hectic enthusiasm, the editors and the
correctors working on the copy at the same time
that the earlier formes were being printed on the
press. In those days, no printer had sufficient type
to set up a whole volume at a time. As soon as
enough type was composed to constitute a forme
of four or eight pages, it was run off on the hand
press. Then the type was distributed, reset, and the
procedure was repeated.

" My days and nights are devoted to the prep-
aration of material," Aldus writes. " I can scarcely

[57]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

take food or strengthen my stomach owing to the
multiplicity and pressure of business. With both
hands occupied, and surrounded by pressmen who
are clamorous for work, there is scarcely time even
to blow my nose."

As a result of this haste many of these early
volumes were set up directly from the original
manuscripts. When one realizes that Homer was
the only great Greek author who had been issued
in printed form prior to Aldus, and recalls that
Aldus gave to the world for the first time printed
editions of Aristotle, Plato, Thucydides, Xeno-
phon, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Sopho-
cles, Demosthenes, Lysias, ^Echines, Plutarch, and
Pindar, he may appreciate the stupendous contri-
bution made by this great printer to scholarship.
And except for the effort of Petrarch in the four-
teenth century, and his fellow humanists in the
fifteenth, many of these manuscripts would have
been irrevocably lost before Aldus had the op-
portunity to multiply them!

The publications of Aldus include about one
hundred titles issued during twenty years in about
two hundred and fifty volumes. Taking into ac-
count the difficulties presented by the fact that the
art of printing was still in its infancy} that each of
these titles was produced from manuscript copyj
and that from 1509 to 1511 Venice was so har-

t 58 ]ALDUS MANUTIUS

assed by war that business was almost at a stand-
still, Aldus may be credited with the most tremen-
dous and important accomplishment in the whole
history of publishing.

Aldus felt the lack of inspiration which would
have come from intellectual contact with univer-
sity surroundings, so with characteristic energy he
undertook to supply this signal lack in the com-
pleteness of Venetian life. This, in 1550, took the
form of the Ne-accademia Nostra — an Academy
which should be to Venice what the famous institu-
tion established by the Medici had been to Flor-
ence. The special object of this organization was
to assimilate the knowledge of the classical litera-
ture of Greece, and to become more familiar with
it. One of the basic rules of the Academy was that
the members must speak nothing but Greek among
themselves, or submit to a fine. When the sum thus
collected was sufficient, the members indulged in a
banquet. Aldus himself was the first president
of the organization, and the members included
readers and correctors of the Aldine Press, priests
and doctors, the cultured nobility of Venice, Padua,
Rome, Bologna, and Lucca, Greek scholars from
Candia, and even the great Erasmus from Rotter-
dam.

The Academy proved useful and stimulating to

Aldus. On certain fixed days the members ex-

[59]MASTER MAKERS OF THE. BOOK

amined new Greek manuscripts and passed judg-
ment on the desirability of their publication, tak-
ing as their measuring stick the service such texts
might render to scholarship. In a way, this was a
revival of the Academy founded by Ptolemy
Philadelphus in 300 B.C., and a more recent paral-
lel would be the functions exercised by the Dele-
gates of the Clarendon Press of Oxford, England.
Aldus had hoped that the Venetian Academy
would assume greater responsibilities by exercising
its influence upon arts and sciences in general, and
had the life of the indefatigable founder been
longer spared, his ambition might have been grati-
fied.

A letter written by Lorenzo of Pavia in 1501
to Isabella d'Este, Marchesa di Mantora, gives an
interesting glance into the business of the Aldine
Press, at that time. The Marchesa was a cultured
noblewoman, who took particular' interest in the
work of Aldus. Seeking to secure examples of his
work, she commissioned Lorenzo to secure them
for her, and this letter, freely translated, is a
report of his experiences in fulfilling his com-
mission:

" You have expressed the desire, illustrious lady,
to obtain large-paper copies of Virgil, Petrarch,
and Ovid. At this moment the Virgil is the only
one I can secure, and I send it to you. The Petrarch
[60]ALDUS MANUTIUS

is not yet completed, but it will be finished in ten
days. The delay is due to a lack of the fine paper —
it has been with difficulty that they secured the
small amount required for the Virgil. Your copy
of the Petrarch will be selected sheet by sheet, so
that you shall have the most beautiful of all the
copies. This is the more assured because this vol-
ume is issued by Aldus in collaboration with Pietro
Bembo, who is wholly devoted to Your Ladyship.
It is Bembo who secured the manuscript, which
Petrarch had written with his own hand, as a
pattern for the types. I have actually held this
manuscript in my hands! It belonged to a Paduan,
who copied each letter with such care that the type
exactly matches the written characters. I will send
the volume to you as soon as it is printed. Aldus
and Bembo wish the first copy to be yours. They
say that this will be for them the best of auguries.

" Immediately after the Petrarch they will print
the Dante, and after that, the Ovid, which will be
begun, I think, about the end of September} but
the Dante will be started within twenty days. I
have been asked to look about for some good
hempen paper, of high quality and pure white, not
too thick in one spot and too thin in another. The
difficulty is to find paper of good enough quality.
They tell me that the price of the Virgil and Pe-
trarch will be not less than five ducats each."

[ 61 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Aldus considered the matter of the sale and dis-
tribution of his books his most serious business
problem. Bookselling as an organized trade was
unknown prior to 1550, and the printer-publisher
of the fifteenth century was largely dependent
upon personal correspondence with scholars who
were interested to purchase his product. In those
days, as now, the real business of books was ham-
pered by casual and insincere flutterers around the
flame of learning. Aldus had no patience with such
as these:

" Nearly every hour," he writes," comes a letter
from some scholar, and if I undertook to reply to
them all, I should be obliged to devote day and
night to correspondence. Then, through the day,
come calls from all kinds of visitors. Some wish
merely to give a word of greeting} others want to
know what there is that is new; while the greater
number come to my office because they happen to
have nothing else to do.' Let us look in upon Al-
dus,' they say to one another. Then they loaf about
and chatter to no purpose. Even these people with
no business are not so bad as those who have a poem
or something in prose (usually very prosy indeed)
which they wish to see printed with the name of
Aldus. These interruptions are now becoming too
serious for me, and I must take steps to lessen
them. Many letters I simply leave unanswered,
[62]ALDUS MANUTIUS

while to others I send very brief replies; and as I
do this not from pride or from discourtesy, but
simply in order to be able to go on with my task of
printing good books, it must not be taken un-
kindly. . . As a warning to the heedless visitors
who use up my business hours to no purpose, I have
now placed a great notice on the door of my office
to the following effect: 'Whoever thou art, thou
art earnestly requested by Aldus to state thy busi-
ness briefly and to take thy departure promptly.
In this way thou mayst be of service, even as was
Hercules to the weary Atlas. For this is a place of
work for all who may enter.' "

There was another side to this correspondence
v which must have been gratifying to the busy
printer. Purchasers of books looked upon Aldus
as a benefactor of mankind, and freely expressed
their appreciation of the privilege of buying. Ur-
banus, for instance, a highly educated monk, wrote
Aldus in 1505:" May the blessing of the Lord rest
upon thee, thou illustrious man. The high reward
in which you are held by our Brotherhood will be
realized by you when you learn that we have
ordered (through the House of Fiigger in Augs-
burg) a group of your valuable publications, and
that it is our chief desire to be able to purchase all
the others. We pray to God each day that He will
in His mercy long preserve your life for the cause

[63]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

of good learning. Our neighbor, Mutianus Rufus,
the learned Canonicus of Gotha, calls you ' the
light of our age,' and is never weary of relating
your great services to scholarship. He sends you a
cordial greeting, as does also Magister Spalatinus,
a man of great learning. We are sending you with
this four gold ducats, and will ask you to send us
(through Fugger) an Etymologicum Magnum
and a Julius Pollux, and also (if there be money
sufficient) the writings of Bessarion, of Xenophon,
and of Hierocles, and the Letters of Merula."

There were other rewards that came to the over-
burdened Aldus. " I cannot tell you what joy I
experienced," he wrote a friend, " when I learned
that in the great city of Brescia the most distin-
guished men were devoting themselves passion-
ately to Greek literature. This truly surpasses all
that I hoped when I undertook the publication
of Greek texts. This passion has increased, day by
day, while arms have contended against books, not
only in Italy, but in Germany, in France, in Pan-
nonia, in England, in Spain, and wherever the
Latin tongue is known. My joy makes me forget
my fatigue, and my ardor is redoubled to come
more and more to the aid of all students, and
especially of the youth born at this period of the
renaissance of letters."

The reference made by Aldus of " arms con-
[64]ALDUS MANUTIUS

tending against books " recalls the frequent in-
terruptions caused by the wars of 1500, 1506,
1510, and 1511, in which Venice was directly in-
volved. During these periods the universities north
of the Alps had to discontinue their classical in-
struction because soldiers in the passes prevented
the Aldine classical texts from being transported
from Venice to their destination.

The piratical reprints of the Aldine volumes
annoyed Aldus even more than the wars. The copy-
rights secured from the Venetian government gave
protection only within the limits of Venice itself.
The printers of Paris were guilty of this piracy
to some extent, but those of Lyons, particularly
the famous house of Giunta, were the chief of-
fenders. Aldus would not have minded so much
the filching of the text, but when the unscrupulous
printers ventured to copy his types and his original
style of typography, and sold their counterfeit
copies as the product of the Aldine Press, his
indignation knew no bounds. " These fraudulent
volumes, printed and sold under my name," he
declares, " prejudice friends of letters to my sor-
row and discredit. The paper is inferior, and even
has a foul odor j the type characters are defective,
and the consonants do not align with the vowels.
It is by their imperfections that you may distin-
guish them."

[65]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

No printer's mark is better known than the
famous Anchor and Dolphin of Aldus. Its origin
goes back to the medals of imperialistic Rome
struck for Vespasian and for Domitian. Pietro
Berribo presented one of these medals to Aldus,
who adopted the device, adding the words Festina
lente, which he found in Augustus. The dolphin
stands for speed in execution, and the anchor for
firmness in deliberation. Sir Thomas Browne trans-
lates the slogan, " Celerity contempered with
cunctation."

The most important rival of Aldus in Venice
was the establishment formed by Nicolas Blastus
and Zacharias Calliergi, devoted exclusively to the
production of Greek volumes. Both these men
were Cretans, Blastus being a man of wealth and
culture, while Calliergi was a printer. The part-
nership was an expression of national pride: exiled
from Greece, these patriotic sons endeavored to
keep alive interest in Greek literature. In spite of
the rivalry, the relations between this Press and
Aldus were not only friendly but intimate. Aldus
saw in the work of Calliergi a real contribution to
Greek learning, and he welcomed the competition.
Marcus Musurus, the chief associate of Aldus in
the Aldine Press, was also a Cretan, and between
him and Blastus existed the closest friendship.
Aldus went so far as to include the Calliergi vol-
[66]ALDUS MANUTIUS

umes in his catalogue, offering them for sale side
by side with his own.

The extent to which the Cretan national pride
carried these exiles is shown by the impassioned
appeal, written by Marcus Musurus, which ap-
pears at the beginning of the Etymologicum
printed by Calliergi in 1499: "Let no one be
astonished at the spirit of the Cretans," he declares,
" since it was Minerva herself who, at the com-
mand of Jupiter, taught the Cretans the beauties
of the art of printing. It was a Cretan who cut these
punches} it was a Cretan who devised the accents,
and a Cretan who joined them to the letters. It
was a Cretan who cast this font of letters in lead}
it was a Cretan, whose name is synonymous with
victory (Nicolas), who bore the expense of this
volume; and he who now celebrates its glory is
a Cretan."

Marcus Musurus and Nicolas Blastus were
voluminous correspondents, and frequently the
subjects discussed were of present interest. Mu-
surus shared Aldus' disgust of those booklovers
who declined to loan him their precious manu-
scripts to be used as copy at the Aldine Press. In
one of his letters Musurus writes:

" The lack of books, my very dear Nicolas, is a
great misfortune for every one, and particularly
for those who burn with a desire for self- instruc-

[67]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

tion and are unable to procure books because of
their lack of means. This is the fault of the manu-
script collectors, who accept self-praise and glory
from their possession, and keep them for them-
selves alone, depriving others of the fame and
glory which would come through their use."

Aldus married Maria, the daughter of an earlier
Venetian printer, Andrea de Torresani, in 1498,
and became the father of three sons and a daughter.
Manutius, the eldest, became a priest at Arola,
Antoninus was a librarian at Bologna, while Paulus
entered the Aldine Press. Alda, the daughter, was
educated in a convent at Carpi, and in his will her
father bequeathed her 300 ducats if she remained
with the Sisters, and 600 ducats if she married.
She chose the latter alternative, and became the
wife of a Mantuan named Cato.

At the time of Aldus' death, Paulus was too
young to assume charge of the business, so Andrea
de Torresani combined his own printing establish-
ment with the Aldine Press. Previously, Andrea
had purchased the type and presses which Nicolas
Jenson had left, so the consolidation brought added
historic luster to the already world-famous plant
of Aldus. Working with Andrea were his two sons,
Francesco and Ferderico.

It was during this period that Jean Grolier be-
came interested in the Aldine Press. From this
[68]ALDUS MANUTIUS

association Grolier became an outstanding figure
in the world of books in Italy and later in France.
He succeeded his father as Treasurer of the Duchy
of Milan in 1510, when thirty-one years old. Hav-
ing already developed a passionate and an under-
standing love for books, he sought out the famous
establishment of Aldus and became acquainted
with the great scholar-printer. Later, Grolier came
to know Andrea de Torresani, and formed a warm
friendship with Francesco. He became the patron
of the Press, sending manuscripts to be printed,
loaning money at eventful crises, and in general
fulfilling the role of good angel. As a result, many
of the Aldine publications are dedicated to Grolier,
and one copy of every book was especially printed
on vellum for this fastidious collector.

In a letter Grolier wrote to Francesco, when
sending him the manuscript of Budeus' De Asse
for publication, the Frenchman gives instructions
which reveal his familiarity with the basic prin-
ciples of good bookmaking:

" You will care with all diligence," he writes,
" O most beloved Francesco, that this work, when
it leaves your printing shop to pass into the hands
of learned men, may be as correct as it is possible
to render it. I heartily beg and beseech this of you.
The book, too, should be decent and elegant; and
to this will contribute the choice of the paper, the

[69]master makers of the book

excellence of the type, which should have been but
little used, and the width of the margins. To speak
more exactly, I should wish it were set up with
the same type with which you printed your Polizi-
ano. And if this decency and elegance shall increase
your expenses, I will refund you entirely. Lastly,
I should wish that nothing be added to the original
or taken from it."

Grolier is perhaps better known from his bind-
ings than from his association with the printing of
books. The famous inscription 10. grolierii et
amicorum, stamped on the covers of his volumes,
expresses this booklover's understanding of what
a book should be — not a treasure to be acquired
and hoarded, but a joy to be shared with others.
In his library of some eight thousand books Grolier
had several copies of the same title, so that no one
of his friends need be deprived of the pleasure
which he himself secured. " You will owe nothing
to books," Erasmus wrote Grolier, "but in the
future, books will give you an eternal glory."

Paulus Manutius assumed charge of the Aldine
Press when he was eighteen years old, but he
was unable to combine, as his father had, his
undoubted scholarly attainments with the busi-
ness necessities. Paulus was particularly interested
in Cicero, and devoted his lifetime to preparing
Commentaries to this author's works, which were
[ 70 ]ALDUS MANUTIUS

published after his death. Paulus was in poor
health during most of the years he struggled with
the problems of the Aldine Press, and later at
Rome. In 15 70, he writes pathetically to his son
Aldus, " Scholarship and industry have never
brought me rest or fortune. I pray God that you
may be better favored." But the younger Aldus
had no yearning for his grandfather's honors.
Gradually the affairs of the Press ran down, and
it passed out of existence at the close of the six-
teenth century.

The death of the great Aldus occurred on Febru-
ary 6, 1515, while he was in his sixty-eighth year.
Measured by human standards, in spite of the fact
that he died a poor man, the sum total of his ac-
complishments seems incredible} yet Aldus him-
self considered his labors wholly incomplete. Gu-
tenberg had conceived the idea of printing books,
and had proved it practical. Fust and Schoeffer,
Sweynheym and Pannartz, John of Spires, Nicolas
Jenson, and Erhardus Ratdolt had each in his turn
contributed to what had gone before, and thus
prepared the way for Aldus j but no one of these
great figures had visualized the relation which the
new invention bore to learning or to the civilization
of the world. They were satisfied if their books
compared favorably with the manuscripts they
imitated, and found a limited sale among the

[71]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

wealthy book collectors and well-to-do students
and professors. Aldus, assuming that quality was
an inherent element of bookmaking, sought, in
the selection of his titles, and in the low price of
his volumes, to make knowledge universal. His
books were but the vehicles conveying wisdom to
those who craved it. To Aldus, each author re-
mained a prisoner so long as he existed only in
manuscript form, and in multiplying the classics so
that all the world might read, the great printer felt
himself nothing less than a liberator of faithful
souls in bondage.

The great contemporaries of Aldus combined
at his death to do him honor. Musurus, Reuchlin,
and Erasmus declared that he had accomplished
more for the spread of learning and for the de-
velopment of literature than all the scholars of his
period. His fellow printers acknowledged without
question his supremacy as a master artist-printer.
No one can again contribute so much to the ex-
ternal and internal advancement of the Book be-
cause that much is not now left undone. Even as
a pioneer, he established so high a standard that
no one has surpassed his work, even with the aid
of modern mechanical improvements — and it is a
question whether any printer has yet equaled the
quality and taste shown in the Aldine master-
pieces.

[72]ALDUS MANUTIUS

Raphael Regio, professor of the humanities
in Venice at the time, delivered the funeral oration
over the body of Aldus lying in state in the old
Church of S. Paternian. The casket rested on a
catafalque banked high with choice editions of the
volumes he had created. These tangible evidences
of the devotion of a lifetime form the ever-living
monument to the continuing benefaction of his
greatness.

When Aldus knew that his end was near he
drew up his will, which in itself is an extraordinary
human document. One of his requests was that his
mortal remains be taken back to Carpi, that he
might finally rest among the beloved scenes of
his youth, which in his maturity he so often and
so happily recalled.

t73]Ill • ROBERT ETIENNE AND
GEOFFROI TORY

The 'Printed 'Book Freedfrom the limitations
of the ^Manuscript VolumeIll • ROBERT ETIENNE AND
GEOFFROI TORY

The 'Printed 'Book Freedfrom the ^imitations
of the rJManuscript Volume

Nearly a century was required to enable the
printed book to free itself from the limitations of
the manuscript volume, and to become the product
of a distinct art. As we have seen, the earliest
printers could visualize the mechanically made
volume only as a counterfeit of its handwritten
pattern. The type was based upon the hand-made
letter, including all its variations and imperfec-
tions} the initial letters were left blank to be filled
in by hand} and the margins were left ample to
permit the illuminator to " light up " the page,
just as he had been wont to do in the manuscript
volume.

The early printed book contained no title page,
no table of contents, no running head, no folios —
simply because the handwritten pattern had estab-
lished this style, and the more closely the printed
book could be made to resemble the handwritten,
the more credit the printer took to himself.

[ 77 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Early in the sixteenth century the skill of the
printers in France began to threaten the supremacy
of Italy in the art of printing. The first French
printers approached the making of a book exactly
as had the Italians, but in their attempts to copy
the manuscript model they had been far less suc-
cessful. By 1525 conditions in Italy operated
against maintaining that high degree of excellence
which had placed the Italian books in a class by
themselves. The noble princes in the great centers
of printing had either been overthrown by the new
intelligence the people had gained from books,
or were too occupied in protecting themselves to
think of magnificently printed or decorated vol-
umes. The masses, intoxicated by their new intel-
lectual freedom, were demanding more and more
printed books, and in their zeal for the power that
came from added knowledge, they cared little for
the physical appearance of the volumes that served
as vehicles. The Book was to play a vital role,
during this early part of the sixteenth century, in
the history of the world.

This revolution took place in France after it
had become history in Italy. Frangois 1 failed to
grasp the significance of what had happened to the
Italian princes. He gathered about him, in his
sumptuous Court, the greatest poets, the most
famous authors, and the most celebrated artists of
[78]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

the age, and the monarch gained keen delight in
basking in the reflected glory of his environment.
If Benvenuto Cellini the goldsmith proved so
bright a jewel in his diadem, why should not a
Royal printer, unhampered by financial limita-
tions and inspired by the patronage of the Court,
produce volumes so far superior to the work of
the Italian master craftsman as to enable Frangois
to become the Father of Letters as well as the
Maecenas of the Arts!

Granted that Frangois felt himself competent
to restrain the temper of his people, he was fully
warranted in believing that there were printers
among his subjects who were equipped to produce
volumes which might compare favorably with the
Italian masterpieces. Out of the indifferent ex-
amples of the early French press had come books
made by Henri fitienne and later by Simon de
Colines which promised a new era in the history
of the Book, not only in the quality of workman-
ship, but also in the actual conception of what a
printed book should be. The French master
printers were sufficiently removed from the tradi-
tions of the earliest printed volumes to make it
possible for them to consider dispassionately the
subject of bookmaking as a whole. Disregarding
what had gone before, they asked themselves what
they could add to the practice of making books as

[79]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

it then existed to make their product more appeal-
ing to the audience they sought to reach.

Arnold Ther Hoernen of Cologne in 1470 had
(perhaps accidentally) introduced what constitutes
the first title page in history 5 six years later, Er-
hardus Ratdolt in Venice elaborated the idea by
adding decoration to what passed as a title. This
was precedent enough for the French printers, par-
ticularly as this new page at the beginning of a
volume offered an attractive location for the ever
popular printer's mark, and, later on, as the page
on which the censor's privilege was given great
prominence. Aldus used his small capitals as run-
ning heads in a few of his volumes; the French
printers found this practice helpful to the reader,
and definitely adopted it. The Aldine books were
either without folios, or had numbers only on the
right-hand pages. This custom, the French con-
tended, was confusing, so they placed the folios in
proper sequence on each succeeding page. In some
of the illuminated volumes there were " mirror "
titles, which consisted of an illuminated page with
the title of the book carefully lettered within a
large circle in the center, smaller circles being ar-
ranged around the larger one, in each of which was
recorded the title of a chapter. Now that the pages
were properly numbered, a table of contents might
easily occupy a page by itself with direct numerical
[ 80 ]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

references; and this aid to the reader was quickly
seized upon by the French. Sixtus Riessinger of
Naples in 1485 had been the first to place leads
between the lines of type; the French found this
innovation exceedingly valuable in relieving the
solid mass of the printed page and overcoming
the difficulty of reading, of which booklovers
complained.

Illustrations now came to be considered as part
of the decorative scheme itself, and the clumsy
woodcuts of the earlier period became, through
the increased skill of the woodcutter, an expression
of a real art. This union of the sister arts of en-
graving and printing was inevitable, and it is curi-
ous that its fulfilment was so long postponed. In
printing from type, the impression is taken from a
raised surface of metal; in printing the woodcut,
from a raised surface of wood — and the simi-
larity of method makes them natural kinsmen.

We have already seen that the decoration of
books, an echo of the handwritten volume, was
absolutely demanded by those who bought them.
We have seen that the theory of the early printers
that embellishment might be added to the printed
page by hand was sound only in theory, as the cost
proved too great for most of those who wished to
secure the gem of thought in its new and less
expensive form; while for those who could afford

[81]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

the luxury of the handwritten and hand-illumi-
nated volume the printed book was not considered
worthy of the gem of thought it contained. It was
natural, then, that during the first half of the
sixteenth century makers of books should be in-
fluenced by the irresistible demand on the part of
readers for greater decoration of the printed page.
By 1530, this demand for decoration was exceed-
ing all bounds. The reading public in France would
not accept a volume unless it contained portraits,
or initial letters, or borders, or illustrations. There
was serious danger that the art of decoration was
about to swamp the art of printing, and the fact
that this tendency was kept under control is due to
the influence of Robert Etienne, whose name
stands first in the typographical annals of France.

This great revolution in the making of books
did not affect the manner of execution, which
changed very little from that of the fifteenth
century, but applied itself primarily to the make-
up of the volume. The type arrangement, the style
and character of the letters and of the decoration,
even the treatment of the cover, suddenly assumed
distinct individuality. Instead of printing the notes
as marginal references, they were placed at the
foot of each page 5 the rubricated capital letters,
which doubled the cost of the presswork, were now
replaced by distinctive floriated letters in design
[82]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

and line in complete harmony with the type, and
printed in black. Just as the cumbersome parch-
ment rolls had been superseded in the Middle
Ages by manuscript volumes of such shape as was
easily handled in reading, books were now bound
in such a manner as to stand side by side upon a
shelf, instead of to lie flat upon a table. The raised
decorations and the inlaid precious stones or metal
on the covers were abandoned because of possible
damage such bindings might cause by rubbing
against each other. Leather bindings came into
general use, and for the first time the necessity
of stamping the title upon the shelfback in gold
letters became apparent. Jean Grolier is given
credit for being the first to use a stamped title upon
the shelfback of a book.

At this time the most impressive figure associ-
ated with books in France was a man named Geof-
froi Tory, of whom far too little is known by the
average student of the art of the Book. His in-
fluence upon everything which entered into the
making of books not only affected the typography
of his period, but was of supreme importance in
determining the basic principles upon which the
Book has rested ever since. He was a native of
Bourges, born about 1480, of unknown, middle-
class parents. There is scant record to show how
this child developed into so accomplished a scholar,

' [83]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

a famous printer and engraver, the first Royal
printer to Frangois i, the author of the famous
and revolutionizing Chamffteury, the reformer
of orthography and typography. Bourges, at the
time of Geoffroi's childhood, was a city of some
importance, with schools and a university, and it
is fair to assume that he availed himself of some
of these opportunities. His real education, how-
ever, began when he went to Rome, where the
records show that he attended the famous college
of La Sapienza, and later Tory himself records,
in the Chamffleury, the fact that he attended the
lectures of the celebrated Filippo Beroaldo. He
returned to France about 1504.

From this time on, Geoffroi Tory demonstrated
considerable ability as a writer. His first literary
work of which we have knowledge was an edition
of Pomponius Mela, which he issued for Jean
Petit, being printed by Giles Gourmont — the
first printer to establish a Greek Press in Paris.
Several of the articles which appear in this volume
were written by Tory, signed Civis, this word being
the signature he employed until he later adopted
that of the Broken Jar. As a result of his erudition,
Tory was appointed Regent, or Professor, in the
College of Plessis in Paris. While here, he acted
as editor for Henri Etienne, father of Robert, and
in this way first came in touch with the Book in its
[B+]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

mechanical aspect, to which he was to devote his
later years.

Tory did not find his labors as a professor suf-
ficiently engrossing to satisfy his ambitious nature,
so he took up the art of drawing, extending his
experiment to the art of engraving, for which he
quickly developed a peculiar aptitude. After ap-
plying himself in this way for three or four years,
he determined upon a second visit to Italy, in order
to study the classic forms and outlines in the
original. He resigned his professorship, and began
his eventful journey, to which constant reference
is made in his Chamffleury. It is fortunate that
Tory had already become interested in typography
and in the decorative side of the Book, as it en-
couraged him to study the beautiful inscriptions on
the Italian monuments with the design of type
letters in his mind.

Geoffroi returned to Paris about 1518, and im-
mediately undertook to capitalize his study and
experience. For a time he devoted himself to the
illumination of manuscripts, but later gave his
entire attention to engraving on wood, in which
art he soon became famous. At this same time he
became a member of the Fraternity of Booksellers
(during the early history of printing in France,
nearly all engravers were booksellers), and he im-
mediately undertook the engraving of a series of

[85]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

borders for a Book of Hours, which, upon its com-
pletion, he proposed to sell in his capacity as book-
seller. From time to time Tory had engraved initial
letters and decorations for Simon de Colines,
Henri Etienne's successor, so it was natural that he
should return to Colines to print his Book of
Hours. This appeared in 1525, and stands as the
first example of a printed book treated as the prod-
uct of an art distinct in itself. The borders and the
initial letters were drawn with the type face con-
stantly in mind, keeping the line in complete
harmony with it — instead of being simply beauti-
ful, unrelated illumination, or a copy of embel-
lished decoration. For the first time the Book was
freed from its dependence upon the styles of
decoration and the irregularity of type design
previously copied from the handwritten volume.

The sensation created by the publication of this
Book of Hours made it obvious to the French
printers that it was a style to be immediately
adopted. Colines secured Tory's cooperation in
designing his office marks, floriated letters, and
the borders which he used in the various volumes
he issued, and in all probability Colines' Italic
type, by many considered a finer letter than that
cut by Aldus, was designed by Tory. But the
artist was not content to stop here. Once having
applied his skill to the Italic letters, he undertook
[86]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

to standardize the Roman face as well, and to free
all type characters from the defects of the hand
letters upon which they had been based.

In his Champfleury, Tory works out the theory
of deriving the shape and proportions of each
letter from the symmetry of the human body. In a
way, this idea was fantastic, but as a matter of fact
his ideas completely revolutionized French type
designing, gave a new distinction to the Roman
characters, and abolished the use of Gothic.

Side by side with his designing and his wood
engraving, Tory applied his scholarship to the
encouragement of a more general use of the
French language. He was thoroughly out of sym-
pathy with those Frenchmen who chose to write in
Greek and in Latin rather than in their native
tongue, and he determined to establish the superi-
ority of the French language in a single volume,
to be illustrated by his own engravings, and to
demonstrate through its text and execution the
practicality of French as a medium of literary ex-
pression. This was the famous Champfleury, which
appeared in 1529. Tory contended that the de-
signer of letters and the printer must perforce be
philologists. Finding that the lack of accents in
the French language was a handicap, Tory was the
first to introduce them; and he even took up the
matter of punctuation. In this later innovation, it

[87]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

may be said that his ideas of punctuating a sentence
were quite at variance with modern usage!

Aside from his work, Geoffroi Tory's devotion
was centered in his daughter Agnes, and when she
died at the early age of ten the artist received a
blow from which it took him long to recover. In
the absorption of his grief, Tory wrote a short
Latin poem commemorating the child, at the foot
of which appeared for the first time his Pot Casse
mark — the Broken Jar, which came to be recog-
nized as the symbol identifying Tory's work.

This mark is the most famous in the annals of
the Book with the single exception, perhaps, of the
Dolphin and Anchor of Aldus, and it is by all odds
the most interesting. Tory explained its significance
in his Champfleury — that the broken pitcher is
symbolic of our body, which is only a vessel of
clay; that the wimble represents Fate, which trans-
fixes both the weak and the strong. The three
chains stand for the Three Fates, sealing the Book
of Life upon our death; and the Flowers in the
pitcher are symbols of our virtues. It is quite as
likely, however, that Tory had in mind a more inti-
mate significance — that the broken pitcher stood
for a life cut short; that the book recalled the
literary studies of the lost Agnes, pursued under
her father's direction; that the winged figure was
intended to symbolize her soul; and the words
[88]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

Non -plus expressed a father's despair over the loss
of a beloved daughter.

Much of Tory's work bears the so-called Lor-
raine cross, which has caused much discussion, as
it appears on engravings which were certainly not
made by Tory. The mark is really a double T,
and is nothing more than the initial of Tory's
last name j in fact, the wimble, in the more elab-
orate Tory device, is shaped like the letter T,.
and the French word for wimble, toret, is a play
on the artist's name. Authorities now believe that
the appearance of the Lorraine cross on the work
of different artists is an evidence that Tory estab-
lished a school, and that his pupils adopted his
mark.

Tory's house in Paris was at the north of the
Church of Saint Benoit. Later he lived on the Rue
Saint Jacques. Whether or not Tory actually
printed any of the volumes attributed to him is an
open question, yet there is no doubt that he was
appointed Royal Printer by Frangois i in 1530.

Geoflfroi Tory died about 1533. Five years later
Frangois appointed two successors: Conrad Neo-
bar, to produce the Greek publications, and Robert
fitienne for the Latin and the Hebrew. When
Neobar died, in 1540, fitienne added the Greek
publications to his own responsibilities, and it was
during his incumbency of the office that the famous

[89]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Royal Greek types were cut. The drawings were
made by the celebrated calligrapher Angelos Ver-
getios, of Candia, whose Greek handwriting is
considered the most beautiful ever seen. It was he
who was employed by Frangois to make transcrip-
tions of Greek texts for the Royal Collection, and
his manuscript volumes may still be admired in
the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. We have al-
ready seen that Aldus based his Greek types upon
a direct imitation of the involved current hand-
writing of the day. The new letters, based upon
the same principle, were even more elaborate,
more involved, and more difficult for the composi-
tors to handle — but they certainly were beautiful.

Robert fitienne came naturally by his interest
in the art of printing. For more than a century
and a half the fitienne family devoted itself to
the making of books in Paris. Henri fitienne
showed himself a conscientious and skilful crafts-
man; Robert, the second of his three sons, in-
herited all this, and added to it a degree of scholar-
ship not possessed by another member of the
family before or after, except, perhaps, his own
son, Henri. The youthful Robert's precocity is a
matter of record, but nothing is known of an exact
nature concerning his education. The fitienne
printing office, located on the Rue Saint-Jean de
Beauvais, was a rendezvous for learned men, and
[ 90]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

it is evident that Robert learned much more than
the usual lessons of a printer's devil while assimi-
lating the basic principles of good bookmaking
under the tutelage of his father and later of his
stepfather.

Henri died in 1520, when Robert was seventeen
years old. Two years later the mother married
Simon de Colines, who had been Henri's associate
in the printing office, was more of a scholar, and
was an equally good printer. The fitienne estab-
lishment continued for a year under the direction
of Colines, by which time the youthful apprentice
showed such a mastery of his art that Colines
placed him in full charge. This was all very well
for a time, but Robert had far different plans for
himself than to remain as foreman for even so dis-
tinguished a printer as Simon de Colines, or even-
tually to become his successor. The boy had dreams,
even as did the youthful Aldus, and in order to
give them a chance to come true he broke away
from the paternal office, and set up his own, near-
by on the same street, when only twenty-two
years of age.

Robert Etienne owed much to his stepfather
beyond instruction as to how best to stick types on
end. Simon de Colines was an enthusiast on the
subject of Latin literature, his favorite author
being Cicero. From association with Colines, the

[91 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

quick intellect of the youthful Robert absorbed a
new impetus in the direction of the classics which
was to affect all his later work. Two years after
starting his own Press, he married Perette Bade,
an accomplished daughter of the scholarly printer
Josse Bade. She ably supplemented his work and
conscientiously assisted him in all his undertakings.
While the busy Robert was engaged upon other
duties, Perette met visitors to the Press, conducted
the correspondence, and protected her husband
from interruption. She spoke Latin as fluently as
did Robert, and as their household, including edi-
tors and press correctors, embraced several nation-
alities, the conversation was carried on entirely in
Latin — even as in the house of Aldus they spoke
only Greek.

The publications issued by Robert fitienne so
attracted the attention of the King that after Geof-
froi Tory died, the appointment of Robert as
Royal Printer was a natural sequence. The personal
side of this new association proved delightful, for
Frangois possessed a genuine affection for the en-
thusiastic young scholar. It became a common sight
for the King, accompanied by pages, equerries,
and serious-faced professors astride their mules,
to turn into the Rue Saint-Jean de Beauvais, on a
visit to the Imprimerie Royale, over which Robert
presided. On one such occasion the King came at a
[ 92 ]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFF ROI TORY

moment when the printer was busily engaged in
reading a proof for which the press waited. Such
was their intimacy that when Robert asked Royal
indulgence until the work was completed, Frangois
graciously assented.

At another time, the cavalcade halting before
the fitienne establishment would include the beau-
tiful and accomplished Queen of Navarre, Mar-
guerite de Valois, sister to Francois, mounted upon
her charger, and surrounded by a colorful company
as escort. During these visits, Dame Perette was a
charming hostess, joining with her husband in
answering questions regarding the volumes then
in process, and discussing with the Royal guests
and the learned professors problems which were
of general interest. The fact that all could con-
verse in the common Latin tongue added to the
brilliancy of these events.

There was another side to the post of Printer
to the King which was not only trying, but even-
tually proved to be fraught with actual danger.
The King might be indifferent to the awakening
of the people as they became intellectually inde-
pendent through the means of their new ally, the
printed book, but Robert found himself constantly
in difficulties with the Church authorities, who
were acutely aware of what was happening, and
who were naturally exercising every effort to hold

[93]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

their power over a people threatening to break
away from the old-time anchorage. When Martin
Luther burned the papal bull of Leo x at Witten-
berg in 1521 and started the Reformation, there
naturally arose an overwhelming demand for in-
formation and instruction, and it was through
books that the masses could best learn the argu-
ments advanced on both sides of the questions
then uppermost in everyone's mind. They bought
books, therefore, not to be put on shelves, but to
be read and studied. For the first time a full reali-
zation came to them of how powerful a weapon
the printing press was as a defense against oppres-
sion by Church or State. The real demand for
books on the part of the people dates from this
time.

Here was a dilemma indeed for any printer. His
function was to produce books ; his livelihood re-
quired that he print books for which there was a
definite demand} his reputation depended upon
the accuracy of his texts. Robert, in spite of his
Royal protection, found himself restricted by the
censors, political as well as ecclesiastical, and
seriously interfered with even in his daily life.
Had he been less of a scholar he would have
avoided certain difficulties. When a mere youth in
his father's office, while seeing the New Testa-
ment through the press, Robert discovered certain
[94]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

textual errors which were so obvious that he cor-
rected them. Later, he undertook to make the
reading of the New Testament easier by subdivid-
ing the chapters into verses, and adding marginal
annotations, doing much of this labor, it is said,
on horseback, while going back and forth between
Paris and Lyons, where the Court was temporarily
located, to report the progress of affairs in his
office.

To take such liberties with the established text
of the Bible stamped him, in the eyes of the
censors, as a dangerous character, and he was kept
under constant observation. His house was fre-
quently searched for heretical works, and, on sev-
eral occasions, the besieged printer had to take
refuge at Court to avoid arrest. A King's officer
could scarcely apprehend the person of a man
while under the personal protection of the King,
even though ordered to do so by the King's cen-
sors! " Every time I think of the battle I had with
the Sorbonne during those twenty years," Robert
exclaimed, " I marvel that anyone so small and
worn out as I could have lived through the strain."

The position in which Frangois found himself
was none too agreeable for a seemingly all-power-
ful ruler. He was at heart a true friend of litera-
ture, and no other monarch of Europe had done so
much for its advancement, yet the ecclesiastical and

[95]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

political opponents to the general spread of learn-
ing were strong enough to prevent the full exercise
of his personal desires. From time to time Fran-
cois gave definite evidence that in the struggle
Robert was going through with the censors the
printer held the King's hearty sympathy. When
the doctors of the Sorbonne, for instance, banned
the publication of Etienne's New Testament in
1541, Frangois not only accepted a personal copy
as a gift, but expressed his appreciation of Robert's
accomplishment. This made it possible for the
Bible to be sold to the general public, but the en-
raged ecclesiastics steadfastly prohibited its use
within the precincts of the University.

Frangois 1 was genuinely attached to Robert,
and took real pleasure in associating with him and
his books. " Francois 1 passionately loved litera-
ture and men-of-letters," — wrote Henri Etienne,
Robert's son. " He had a particular affection for my
father, and a few days before my father died, in
the presence of all the Court, he made formal
acknowledgment of this attachment. My father
obtained from him whatever he asked for, and the
extreme liberality of the King toward letters and
learned mqn was to the advantage of great typo-
graphic enterprises. This even went so far that
when he discovered what my father's desires really
were, he exceeded them."

[96]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

The cutting of the Royal Greek types is an inter-
esting example of the King's interest. " Francois i
provided large moneys for the making of ex-
tremely graceful letters both of Greek and Latin,"
Pierre Victoire records. " They were so nimbly
and so delicately devised that it can scarce be con-
ceived that human wit may compass anything more
dainty and exquisite} so that books printed with
these types do not merely invite the reader —
they draw him by an irresistible attraction."

It was a bitter fight, and the censors won when
Frangois died in 1547. His son and successor,
Henri 11, was incapable of combatting the pres-
sure brought to bear upon him. Heresy was de-
clared treason, and punishable by death. Under
this new law, Etienne saw the publisher Dolet
executed and then burned, together with his heret-
ical volumes, in the Place Maubert, in Paris. The
printing of books in France had become too haz-
ardous a risk, and Robert secretly made plans to
transport himself and his printing office to Geneva.
This was accomplished in 1552. Here he continued
his work until his death, six years later.

At its height, the fitienne printing establishment
in Paris carried five or six fonts of Roman and
Italic type, several cases of rare ornaments and
initials engraved on wood, and four hand presses.
The personnel varied from fifteen to twenty edi-

t 97 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

tors, compositors, and pressmen, the workmen
being Flemish or German. Robert spent thirty-
four years of his life making books under his own
imprint, averaging sixteen titles a year. When one
considers the fact that he devoted much personal
time and strength to the editorial preparation of
his copy and in revising the proofs, when other
printers left this responsibility largely to students,
and that he had to defend himself and his publi-
cations against the never-ending attacks of the
censors, he can appreciate Robert's statement,
" Without divine assistance I should have suc-
cumbed under the burden."

Robert fitienne first made use of an individual
printer's device in a volume issued in 1525. This
consisted of a spreading olive tree, from which a
branch was falling. Sauvel, writing as late as 1650,
records the fact that the olive tree which suggested
the device was still flourishing in the Rue Saint-
Jean de Beauvais. A later writer says, " This olive
tree now exists only upon Robert fitienne's books,
but there it is imperishable." For motto, he selected
the verse from Romans xi : 20, " Be not high-
minded, but fear." Surely his life exemplified a
very different sentiment!

Of the eight children that were born to Robert
and Perette, Robert 11 worked with his father in
the Paris printing office, while Henri u and Fran-
[98]ROBERT ETIENNE AND GEOFFROI TORY

gois ii assisted him with the volumes printed in
Geneva. Simon died in his youth, and of Jean one
only knows that he married and lived in Geneva.
Of the three daughters history records no data.
The names of the sons memorialize three of the
personages most closely associated with the great
printer's life.

The importance of the contribution made by
Robert fitienne to the evolution of the Book can-
not be overestimated. Aldus had demonstrated,
that mechanical counterfeits of handwritten vol-
umes could be produced of a quality which was
befitting the contents and yet be sold at a price
within the reach of the man in the street. He had
prepared Greek grammars and lexicons, he had
cut Roman and Italic types, his printed volumes
were available for later printers to use as copy,
fitienne made use of all the pioneer work that his
predecessor had accomplished, maintained the high
standard already established, and built upon the
splendid basis thus supplied. He himself prepared
a Latin dictionary, which remained a standard for
two centuries. Stimulated by the influence of Geof-
froi Tory, he had the Roman and Italic letters
recut, freed from the inaccuracies of their hand-
written models. He gave to lovers of the beautiful
the most splendid Greek letters ever designed.
The printed volumes which reached the people

[ 99 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

through his courageous fight against the censors
influenced the history of the world.

De Thou contends that Robert fitienne " left
Aldus Manutius and Froben far behind him in
judgment, technical skill, and elegance." This is
an unjust comparison, for the half century which
elapsed between the epochs of the two great
scholar-printers produced conditions that cannot
be compared. Each gave to the Book everything
he had, and the sum total of that contribution so
firmly established the art of printing upon basic
truths that the work of their successors had to con-
cern itself with problems of distribution and of
factors later introduced by the broadening of the
horizon of books, rather than with the vital prin-
ciples of the art itself. But De Thou is well within
the facts when he adds, " The labors of Robert
Etienne did more for the honor and the immortal
glory of France than all the great deeds of our
wars, more than all accomplished by the arts of
peace."

[ ioo ]• CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

The beginnings of PublishingIV • CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

The beginnings of Publishing

By the middle of the sixteenth century all opposi-
tion to the printing press as a medium of duplicat-
ing volumes had disappeared, but new conditions
arose which demanded from the master printers
of this period attributes that had not been called
upon during the epochs of Aldus or Etienne. The
handwritten, illuminated manuscript volume re-
mained just what it always had been — the ex-
quisite expression of the form a limited number
of wealthy booklovers believed the vehicle should
assume in order to convey the thought of the
author, clothed in worthy dress, to the soul of the
reader. The printed book, carefully composed in
type closely imitating the work of the scribes,
with wide margins of beautiful hand-made paper,
inviting elaborate hand illumination, had won its
right to lie upon the table with its more glorified
rival without disgrace. The dependence of the
printed volume upon the traditions of the written
book had been removed, and machine-made vol-
umes had become the product of an art distinct

[ 103 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

in itself. Printing machinery could now be bought
instead of laboriously manufactured from original
models. Ecclesiastical manuscripts, the classics, the
works of the humanists, were now available to the
man in the street at a cost within his means.

With the production of the .volumes provided
for, the problem now arose of how to place these
books within the reach of all those who wished to
buy them. By this time, the demand came not only
from the communities in which the volumes were
published, or from adjacent cities, but also from
far distant points. Readers had become numerous
the world over, and they expected books to be
placed within their reach. No longer might printers
satisfy this insistent demand by offering copies for
sale at the various book fairs, as they had been wont
to do. No longer might scholars ask great banking
houses to act as intermediaries, as did the famous
establishment of Fiigger of Augsburg in connec-
tion with the Aldine Press — such service would
now have swamped the banks with detail. Deposi-
tories must be provided by the printers, agents
must be appointed, branch offices must be estab-
lished. In short, a new, cooperating business must
be created. Out of these necessities was born the
business of publishing, and at first no one thought
of separating the two functions of producing and
distributing.

[ 104]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

The original manuscripts of practically all the
great writers of the past had by this time been put
in type, so that the master printer of the sixteenth
century had an easier problem in the way of pro-
curing copy. It was also a much simpler proposi-
tion to secure editors and proofreaders from neigh-
boring educational institutions. On the other hand,
the subject matter of books had become much more
diversified. Most of the volumes issued by Aldus
and Etienne had been printed in Latin, Greek, or
Hebrew — a few in Italian and French. By the
middle of the sixteenth century there were con-
temporary writers who produced manuscripts
which had to be put into type in the vernacular
tongues, and then distributed each in its natural
field. This required a large staff of editors and
proofreaders who were competent to prepare
the copy and to read the proofs in the different
languages.

This was the situation when Christophe Plantin
entered the service of the Book, and became the
leading figure associated with it during the last
half of the sixteenth century. He was a French-
man, born at Saint-Avertin, a small hamlet near
Tours, in May, 1520. The boy's mother died of
the plague while he was still a youth, and his father
took him to Lyons to escape the contagion. Here
the lad was left in the care of Claude Porret,

[ 105 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

audienc'ter of the Church of Saint Just, with a small
sum of money, while the father went on, ostensibly
to Orleans and Paris. What really became of him
is not known, as he never returned or communi-
cated with his son or with Porret. Christophe was
brought up with Porret's own son Peter, for whom
he formed a deep attachment, until he grew old
enough to strike out for himself. His earliest ven-
ture was an apprenticeship to Robert Mace, a
printer in Caen, where he first became interested
in the possibilities of the new art of typography.
Here Christophe married and remained until x 546,
when he decided to enlarge his horizon by going
on to Paris to seek his fortune.

Plantin reached Paris at the very time when
Robert fitienne was passing through his strenu-
ous experiences with the censors. Christophe saw
Henri 11 ascend the French throne, and he read
one of the King's earliest proclamations — that
heresy would be considered and treated as high
treason. He was deeply impressed by the execution
of Dolet, the Paris publisher, who was hanged and
then burned at the stake for having in his posses-
sion heretical volumes. Plantin decided that Paris
was no place for an ambitious printer, so, in 1549,
he deserted the French metropolis and betook
himself to Antwerp.

At this time Antwerp was the leading city in all
[ 106 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

Europe. By the end of the fifteenth century it was
already recognized as the most important town in
the Low Countries, and as the glory of Bruges
waned Antwerp developed. It was the natural
center of trade, in the north, for Spain and Por-
tugal; it attracted great financial princes, like the
Fiiggers, the Welsers, and the Hochstetters. Eng-
lish and French merchants, as well as the most
enterprising traders in the Low Countries, selected
Antwerp as the scene of their operations. By the
middle of the sixteenth century, it outranked Paris
or even London as the leading commercial city in
the world.

The Netherlanders had shown consummate
genius and skill in developing their commercial
interests, with a result that during the sixteenth
century the people turned with enthusiasm to the
subjects of religion, politics, and literature. With
the exception of Venice, Florence, and perhaps a
few other Italian communities, where the old
humanistic atmosphere still remained, there was
no portion of the world where intelligence and
culture were so generally diffused. Learning,
which had previously been regarded as a luxury,
had become a necessity. Antwerp was the center
for art dealers, and the fine editions of the Aldine
Press were in greater demand there than in any
other city of Europe.

[ 107 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Christophe's selection of Antwerp was fully
justified, but he was to experience disappointment
on his arrival in that city when he discovered that
a complete section of the town was already given
over to the making of books, there being no less
than fifty-six printers already established. Compe-
tition seemed hopeless to the newcomer, so he set
up a shop, a little outside the city, where he soon
became famous for his moroccoLcovered jewel
boxes, his leather shrines, his bindings, and his
mosaics.

Here, except for an accident, Christophe might
easily have remained for the rest of his life, in
which case the history of the Book would have
been that much poorer. One of Plantin's customers
in the little shop was no less a personage than
Gabriel de Cayas, secretary to Philip n, King of
Spain. The secretary wished to present to His
Majesty a valuable gem, and he commissioned
Plantin to make a beautiful case in which the gift
might be enclosed. When the task was completed,
Plantin undertook personally to deliver the casket.
With this in mind, he set out one night, preceded
by a servant carrying a torch. Suddenly, without
warning, he was attacked by masked ruffians, who
mistook him for a guitar player who had annoyed
them, and whom they wished to punish. In the
affray Christophe was seriously stabbed. He es-
[ 108 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

caped with his life, but his right hand was forever
useless.

Christophe Plantin could now no longer manu-
facture the beautiful but trivial souvenirs which
had made his shop so popular, and again his mind
turned toward the Book. " I can no longer earn
my daily bread in binding books," he said, " so I
shall write books with the press as pen." With new
courage born from his experiences, he boldly estab-
lished himself in the heart of Antwerp, and in
1555 issued his first volume. From that date down
to 1867 the Plantin Press, presided over by Chris-
tophe Plantin and his descendants, carried on an
unbroken business in the manufacture of books —
a record not equaled by any other dynasty in typo-
graphical annals.

Christophe Plantin had what would pass as a
good common-school education, but he was not a
highly educated man when compared with Aldus
or with Robert fitienne. The demands of the
period called not so much for high scholarship as
for business judgment and executive ability. He
had some knowledge of English and Italian, and
he read, wrote, and spoke Latin, German, Flemish,
French, and Spanish. His tastes were scholarly,
and he cleverly surrounded himself with students
and scholars as associates in his undertakings. Plan-
tin's greatest asset was the realization of his re-

[ 109 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

sponsibilities:" I have always esteemed," he wrote,
" that the teaching of the youth of a country, and
all that depends thereon, as writing, printing, and
books, is surely of as great importance for the King
as money itself." It is a tribute to his character that
in all the careful records of the Plantin Press kept
during his lifetime there is no instance of any
disagreement between the master printer and his
authors, and but a few instances where the work-
men failed to accept his authority without question.
In these cases matters were quickly settled through
the cooperation of; a workingmen's committee,
which Plantin had organized in his workshop. The
Antwerp master printer was thus several hundred
years in advance of the modern affiliation between
capital and labor.

Plantin was a curious combination of dreamer
and practical business man. A study of the Rubens
portrait, of which a copy hangs in the Plantin-
Moretus Museum in Antwerp, discloses seemingly
conflicting characteristics. " I have had no other
treasures than assiduous work, sobriety, and
thrift," he wrote his married daughter, Madeleine,
who applied to him for aid. Personal pleasures did
not enter into his scheme of life. Montanus once
said of him, " There is nothing material about
Plantin. All is mind. He neither drinks nor sleeps."

In selecting Antwerp as his home, Christophe
[ no]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

could not have foreseen that he was thus placing
himself in the very center of the life and death
struggle which was taking place between the State,
the Church, and the Press. In 1576, Antwerp was
sacked by the Spanish soldiers, and so merciless
was the attack that it was called the " Spanish
Fury." For nine years all business within the city
was interrupted, and Plantin's establishment dwin-
dled from twenty-two presses and one hundred
and fifty employees down to a single press. " Nine
times," protested the harassed printer, "did I
have to pay ransom to save my property from
destruction. It would have been cheaper to aban-
don it."

In addition to the calamities of war came the
oppressive censorship. At first the penalty for
printing a book without official authorization was
modestly fixed at five gold florins, but soon f urthen
and more severe penalties were added. An offend-
ing printer made himself liable to public exposure,
of being branded with a hot iron, or losing an eye
or a hand, as the judge might decide. Later still,
the death penalty was added. At last the Inquisi-
tion took into its own hands the supervision and the
censorship of the Press.

Grave doubts have been expressed as to Chris-
tophe's abiding religious principles. From the very
beginning of his work in Antwerp he was harassed

fin]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

by the ecclesiastical censors. At one time a tract
issuing from Plantings office was declared by the
Margrave of Antwerp to be heretical, and Chris-
tophe and three of his workmen were actually
condemned. His property was seized and every-
thing he possessed was sold at auction. Plantin
himself was in Paris at the time, and loyal friends
bought in most of the property to save him from
absolute ruin. Fortunately, Plantin was able to
prove that the offending tract had been issued
without his knowledge, but the three workmen
were condemned to the Spanish galleys.

Then again, after forming one of the earliest
printing and publishing associations in the history
of the Book, Plantin found heresy charges brought
against three of his partners. The Bomberghe
brothers and De Schotti had to fly for their lives,
but Christophe was not included in the accusation.

When, years later, he fled to Leyden, he was
most friendly with the Protestants, who made that
city their rallying point, yet no sustained charges
were made against him that he had proved false
to the religion of his family. Some historians give
Plantin credit for unusual versatility in adapting
his religious point of view to business conditions3
but there is nothing to show conclusively that he
was at any time other than a good Catholic.

Christophe Plantin was not a prophet without
[ "2 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

honor in his own country. The contemporaneous
Florentine nobleman, Guicciardini, who wrote so
entertainingly of the Netherlands in the sixteenth
century, included the Plantin Press with the spire
of the Cathedral, the Town Hall, the Hansa
House, and the Mint as " worthy to be viewed with
delight and pleasure in Antwerp." He continues:
" Up until now there has never been seen nor is
seen in the whole of Europe so extensive and beau-
tiful a printing establishment as that of Chris-
tophe Plantin, where there are so many presses,
letters of all sorts, prints, and tools, proper and
capable men earning higher wages with working,
correcting, and revising in all languages, strange as
well as familar ones, without any exception, so that
all things combined, in this house, with its adher-
ents and dependencies, more than 300 florins are
spent on each work day; which establishment,
surely a noble and Royal one, not only redounds
to the credit and honor of its worthy founder and
head, but also to that of the town itself; for its
beautiful and valuable works are sent and spread in
large numbers all over the world." Plantin him-
self, in a letter to the magistracy, declared that he
possessed, " without boasting, so many stamps,
matrices, presses, types, and figures, that all the
printers in Europe assert never to have seen so
many together as in this establishment."

[ "3 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

During the first half of Plantings career, until
the time of the Spanish Fury (1576), the Plantin
printing office was the center of the spirit of the
Renaissance. Christophe himself was the outstand-
ing relic of the humanistic movement left in
the sixteenth century, and, through his devotion
to the advancement of the Book, he set an example
to his fellow citizens that bore definite fruit. Ant-
werp, influenced by the teachings of Erasmus,
manifested a strong tendency toward the higher
intellectuality, but approached it with a daring
born of the successful spirit of audacity which had
previously won for the city such commercial su-
premacy. This attitude was fraught with danger,
and Plantin's influence supplied the balance.

Just as the vision of Aldus Manutius had been
to produce the Latin and Greek classics, so did
the ambition of Christophe Plantin concentrate
in a determination to produce the most perfect
edition of the Bible that had yet been brought
out. The preaching of Martin Luther had at-
tracted the attention of the entire Christian world
more particularly than ever to the Holy Scrip-
tures. The people had been taught that this book
was the single basis of their faith, and that their
present and future welfare depended upon their
familiarity with it. Plantin aspired to supply the
world with the most accurate text, produced with
[ 114]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

the greatest care exercised in every portion of
the manufacture.

Aldus had started a polyglot Bible, but his death
occurred before he could complete it. Plantin was
the first to conceive and carry through the idea of
having the Hebrew text on the left-hand page,
with a parallel column in which the Vulgate was
rendered j on the right-hand page he printed the
Greek version, with a Latin translation in the
parallel column. At the foot appeared a Chaldean
paraphrase. New type had to be designed and cut,
and Plantin commissioned Robert Grandjon, an
engraver of Lyons, to design the Greek characters,
based on the beautiful Royal Greeks of Robert
Etienne, but made more practical for the com-
positors. Grandjon also drew the Roman letters
and part of the Hebrew, in which Guillaume Le
Be collaborated.

By this time Plantin had assumed the position
of the leading printer of his period, so with the
announcement of his plan for this Polyglot Bible
came flattering propositions from Frankfort, Hei-
delberg, and even Paris, seeking the honor of being
associated with the important work. King Philip
of Spain had been watching the development of
Christophe Plantin's business with peculiar inter-
est because of the highly favorable reports he had
received from his secretary, Gabriel de Cayas. He

[»5]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

now had no notion of permitting any one to share
in what he became convinced would be Plantin's
greatest glory, so he undertook to subsidize the
undertaking by promising to pay 21,200 florins
for twelve copies on vellum.

In this way began the partnership between
Christophe Plantin, master printer of the sixteenth
century, and Philip 11, King of Spain — an associ-
ation which was directly responsible for Plantin's
financial difficulties, yet indirectly the basis of all
his subsequent material prosperity. One of the
King's stipulations was that Plantin should receive
as associate in the editorial end of the great work
a famous Spanish scholar, Benoit Arias Montanus.
Christophe rather resented this apparent lack of
confidence on the part of the King, 'but Montanus
no sooner arrived in Antwerp than he charmed
everyone by his personality, and won profound
admiration for his learning. He immediately sur-
rounded himself with collaborators from the
neighboring University of Louvain, with a result
that the Polyglot Bible became the most scholarly
edition issued up to this time.

Not only did Montanus prove of the utmost
service in the publication of the Bibley but he be-
came Plantin's chief ambassador in securing
privileges for its publication. Montanus actually
devoted years to travelling from one Court to an-
[ 116 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

other, and remained for months in Rome, finally
persuading Pope Gregory xm to reverse the
attitude taken by Pius v that a general distribu-
tion of the Scriptures was dangerous, and to grant
his approval to the work. He also secured privi-
leges from Germany, France, Venice, and Naples.
Vigorous opposition still remained, particularly
on the part of Leon de Castro of Salamanca, and
Noel Beda, dean of the Faculty of Theology of the
Sorbonne, in Paris, the latter having been the chief
thorn in the flesh of Robert Etienne.

The Polyglot Bible appeared in eight massive
volumes during the years 1568 to 1573. A splen-
didly engraved title, representing the union of the
people in the Christian faith and the four lan-
guages of the Old Testament, opens the first vol-
ume. The famous Plantin device appears in the
lower, right-hand corner, and two other engraved
plates follow, which are both decorative and il-
lustrative. Full-page engravings also appear at the
beginning of the fourth and fifth volumes. Twelve
copies of the work were printed on vellum for
King Philip. A thirteenth copy on vellum was be-
gun but never finished. Ten copies were printed on
large Italian imperial paper, about 300 copies on
smaller imperial paper, and 960 on royal Troyes
paper. King Philip presented one of his vellum
copies to the Pope, another to the Duke of Alba,

[ "7 1MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

and a third to the Duke of Savoy, depositing the
remaining nine copies in the library of the Escurial.

The accuracy of the text, the cleverness of the
typographical arrangement, the beauty of the
frontispieces, the typography, and the presswork,
together with the diplomacy of Montanus, all
resulted in placing the Polyglot Bible upon so firm
a basis that its opponents could not dislodge it from
the triumphant place it won as the greatest typo-
graphical monument of its period.

While this was gratifying to Plantin, it did not
relieve his financial embarrassment. The long de-
lays occasioned by the uncertainty of securing
privileges for publication made it necessary for the
printer to incur all his expenses of manufacture
before a single florin could come back to him by
way of reimbursement. Each year cost him 25,000
florins for interest on his borrowed capital alone.
Nothing but his high reputation as a business man
of honor prevented the Plantin Press from coming
to an abrupt termination at this point. Christophe
sold his library, he cut the price on his precious
Plantin Press volumes} but the debts kept mount-
ing. " I am struggling with a many-headed mon-
ster," he writes to his old friend, Gabriel de Cayas.
" The printing office is a regular whirlpool into
the jaws of which one must always be throwing
what is necessary, for otherwise it devours even
[118]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

its master." King Philip, still oblivious to his
financial obligations, expressed his approval of the
Polyglot Bible by creating Plantin prototypo-
graphe, or ruler over all the printers in the city.
This was an honor, but Plantin did not need the
King's endorsement to a work which had already
been accepted as a masterpiece. It did relieve him
from the necessity of housing Spanish soldiers,
and it also placed him in the strategic position of
knowing exactly what competing printers were
undertaking j but his creditors found nothing in the
new title to satisfy their ever-present financial
claims.

A more practical service that the King per-
formed for Christophe Plantin was when he se-
cured for him a license from the Holy See. The
value of this monopoly was at that time under-
estimated both by the King and the printer, but
during the two hundred years it existed the Plantin
Press turned out millions of missals, breviaries,
diurnals, psalters, antiphonaries, and offices of the
Virgin, which brought a fortune to Plantin and his
successors. By means of these and other equally
unpretentious publications Christophe paid his
creditors in full, placed the Plantin Press upon a
sound business basis, and at his death left property
valued at over $200,000.

The devices which the various printers adopted

[ "9]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

were far more than trademarks. In them each
master workman tried to express his own idealism
and the objective he sought to attain. The famous
Compasses held by a hand emerging from the
clouds selected by Christophe Plantin as the center
of his mark, together with his motto Lahore et
constantia, are peculiarly appropriate. The fixed
point of the compasses perfectly symbolizes the
tenacity and steadfastness with which Plantin met
every difficulty and reverse} the moving point,
describing a circle, expresses the never-ceasing
activity and the ever-widening horizon of the
great printer's mind. In the design of this device
made by Rubens, Hercules stands on one side of
the compasses, symbolizing Labor, while on the
other side is the figure of a woman, personifying
Constancy. The turning arm of the compasses also
represents Labor, while the arm remaining at rest
is Constant.

As the business of the Plantin Press grew, it had
been necessary for Christophe to prepare himself
to issue volumes in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French,
German, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and
English. His business correspondence itself was
conducted in four different tongues. His scheme
of distribution was rapidly extending. The branch
office planned for London had to be abandoned
because of the " Spanish Fury," but in 1568 he
[ 120]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

delivered to one correspondent there books valued
at 4400 florins j during the single year 1570 the
French branch of the Plantin Press, established
in Paris in 1567, carried on a business of 19,000
florinsj the branch house at Salamanca, managed
by Perez, sold each year books to the value of
from 5000 to 15,000 florins. In 1579 Plantin ex-
hibited sixty-seven different titles at the book fair
at Frankfort, " where assembled not only all the
important publishers and editors, but also a great
number of the learned men of the period," and of
these he sold 5212 volumes. By this time Plantin
shared with Henri Etienne, of Geneva, son of the
famous Robert fitienne, the distinction of being
the leading publisher of the world.

After nine years of continued war conditions,
Plantin came to believe that Antwerp could never
free herself from the Spanish yoke. Not only had
the city itself been torn to pieces and business
brought practically to a standstill, but many of the
leading citizens had either lost their lives or had
left Antwerp, seeking more advantageous sur-
roundings for their work. Plantin was urged to
follow their example. Charles Emmanuel 1, Duke
of Savoy, tried to persuade him to remove his
establishment to Turin; he was even offered the
post of Royal Printer by Henri 111 of France.
Neither of these opportunites appealed to him.

[ 121 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Many of those upon whom the intellectual life
and literary activity of Antwerp depended had
found refuge in Leyden. Among these men was
the great historian Lipsius, who had earlier been
of such service to Plantin through his learning and
by his skill as proof corrector. Lipsius had been
made a professor in the new University of Leyden,
which William of Orange had presented to this
city in recognition of its courageous and successful
resistance to the Spanish attacks. The University
needed an official printer, and in 1583 Plantin ac-
cepted the invitation of his friend Lipsius to occupy
this position, leaving the Antwerp establishment
still running, but in the hands of his sons-in-law.
The remuneration from this new post was two
hundred florins a year.

Once in Leyden, Plantin established a well-
organized printing office. Its foreman was Louis
Elzevir, this being the first time a member of this
famous family appears in typographical annals.
Elzevir, however, was a bookseller rather than a
printer, with no practical knowledge of making
books. So long as Plantin directed the enterprise
all went well; but Elzevir was the gainer in the
association, learning from the great master printer
much that was to prove useful to him and to his
family in later years. When Christophe returned
to Antwerp, in 1585, he left the Leyden office
[ 122 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

in charge not of Louis Elzevir but of Francis
Raphelengius, his own son-in-law.

This return to Antwerp brought back the joy in
Plantin's heart. The battle-scarred veteran could
never have been happy in Leyden. The result of
the war, so long drawn out, had been to separate
the Netherlands into the Dutch Republic at the
north, leaving the southern portion, the present
Belgium, still in the hands of Spain. This was per-
haps fortunate for Plantin, for King Philip was
friendly, and possibly felt himself under further
obligations because of his defaulted payments.
The great printer, undaunted by the destruction
of Antwerp's prosperity and commercial suprem-
acy, began business over again with the single press
which remained active in his establishment, and
within two years made of the " Golden Com-
passes " a going and successful concern. Lahore et
constantia!

Christophe Plantin died in 1589, and was
worthily succeeded by his son-in-law, Jean More-
tus. In his will the old man made the wise stipula-
tion that the management of the business should
always be in the hands of that particular descendant
who, in the opinion of the family, was best quali-
fied to handle it. Moretus was an accomplished
scholar, possessed a broad knowledge of languages,
and inherited Plantin's humanistic tendencies.

[ 123 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Jean had served the Plan tin Press since his four-
teenth year, and had so fully assimilated the basic
principles of its founder that during his adminis-
tration the Press closely followed the old tradi-
tions. Beyond this, Jean manifested a particular
interest in the scientific quality of his publications,
guarding the mechanical perfection and the artistic
appearance of the volumes, but adding titles of an
advanced scientific nature.

Jean Moretus, at his death in 1610, was suc-
ceeded by his son Balthazar, who ranks as the
greatest printer of the Plantin family after Chris-
tophe himself. Even as a lad, Balthazar displayed
great cleverness in writing Latin, much to the
delight of his grandfather, and his appreciation
of the artistic side of printing developed in his
home environment. When he assumed his position
as the head of the Plantin Press he surrounded
himself not only with scholars, but with some of
the greatest artists of his period, Peter Paul Ru-
bens being among his most intimate friends. Lip-
sius, the old associate of his grandfather, was de-
voted to the younger man, and, under the guidance
of this great scholar, Balthazar became one of
the great neo-Latinists of his period. Through his
friendship for Rubens, Balthazar carried the art of
copper engraving, as applied to books, to the high-
est point it had ever reached.

[ 124 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

Plantin had previously introduced copper plates
in some of his earlier volumes, which was in itself
a tremendous innovation in bookbuilding. Under
the encouragement of Balthazar, Rubens and his
contemporaries contributed the best of their art
to the Book. Frontispieces, title pages, decorations,
and ornaments of all kinds were now etched on
copper for missals, breviaries, and scientific books.
These still embodied the same principles of decora-
tion combined with illustration which appeared in
the woodcuts that preceded them. Their beauty
is undeniable, yet copper-plate engravings were
never intended to be combined directly with the
printed page. These superb inserts so overwhelmed
the type that their use contributed to the decline
of printing as an art.

Carefully observing Christophe's dying injunc-
tion, the Press passed through successive genera-
tions presided over always by that descendant best
qualified to serve as its head. Unfortunately, the
skill and accomplishments of these descendants
declined as time went on, so that the work of the
Plantin Press in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries differed little from that of any other
commercial printing office. Finally, in 1867, com-
petition became so severe that the Plantin Press
passed out of existence, after a record-breaking
dynasty of over three centuries of continuous

[ 125 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

bookmaking. Nine years later, the State Govern-
ment combined with the city of Antwerp to pur-
chase the property from Edouard Moretus for
1,200,000 francs, and by this far-sighted act was
established the famous Plantin-Moretus Museum.
Here the types, ornaments, engravings, even the
presses, going back to the time of old Christophe
Plantin, are now preserved for posterity.

Not the least valuable among the relics are the
old account books which, without a break, show
what printing establishments of each period paid
for materials, as well as the honoraria given to
authors and the prices charged for the finished
volumes. As the purchase power of money in the
sixteenth century is estimated at ten times what it
is today, these disbursements may be compared
with modern costs.

Many of the authors were content to accept in
full payment for their copyrights a certain number
of printed copies of their work. Jean Isaac, in 15 54,
received 100 copies of his Hebrew Grammar; Do-
donaeus, in 1565, accepted 50 copies of his Fru-
men tor um Historia; Hunnaeus, in 1556, received
200 copies of his Dialectica. Sometimes the hono-
rarium included a small payment of cash as well.
Guicciardini, for instance, received for his volume
on the Low Countries, already quoted, 50 copies
and 82 florins: Stadius, in 1567, accepted 20 florins
[ 126 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

outright for the manuscript of his Commentaries
on Florus.

As for the editors and correctors, Raphelengius,
Plantin's son-in-law, formerly a professor in the
University of Cambridge, in England, and the
most accomplished editor of his period, received
$640 a year; Killanus, who possessed sufficient
ability to write prefaces and Latin poems, to trans-
late manuscripts and to compile a Flemish dic-
tionary, was paid $6.40 a week after fifty years
of service.

Plantin's younger daughters so assimilated the
scholarly atmosphere in which they lived that they
held copy, even in foreign languages, before they
were twelve years old.

The work day in the Plantin Press began at five
o'clock in the morning with no hour for closing.
The compositors averaged about $200 a year; the
binders were paid " by the piece " — 8 cents a copy
for the labor on an octavo sheepskin volume, 12
cents for a folio, and from 56 to 88 cents for a
folio in full calf. The large vellum skins which
were used in the Polyglot Bible cost $3.60 a dozen.

Plantin's classics varied in price in proportion
to the number of pages. The pocket classics were
figured at a rate of 8 cents for each six sheets, and
the octavo classics 8 cents for each four sheets, a
sheet being eight pages. The octavo Virgil, con-

1127 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

taining 38 leaves, brought 40 cents, and the folio
edition, 165 leaves, was priced at $1.60. The great
Polyglot Bible, eight huge volumes, sold at $28.00
with fifteen per cent, discount to the trade.

Plantin never published less than 1250 copies
in an edition unless the book was privately sub-
sidized, and the largest single edition of any Plan-
tin book was the Pentateuch in Hebrew, of which
he ran 3900 copies. Even after Christophe had de-
veloped an elaborate system of branches and agen-
cies, he still continued the retail bookshop at the
Plantin Press. At first Jean Moretus presided over
this, but when Jean became the head of the estab-
lishment, the books were sold to professors and
students from the universities and to other cus-
tomers by the Plantin daughters, clad in quaint,
goffered collars and linen head-dresses.

It is important to distinguish between Chris-
tophe Plantin, the great printer of the second half
of the sixteenth century, and his predecessors,
Robert Etienne and Aldus. The Plantin volumes
by no means compare favorably with those issued
by the two other great artist-printers; but they
were the best of their period, and showed a quality
of technical excellence combined with a recogni-
tion of the new conditions surrounding the making
of books during the Plantin epoch. Printing by
this time had ceased to be a fine art — Plantin
[ 128 ]CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN

practised it as a liberal art. He enlarged the hori-
zon of the Book. He laid the foundations for the
great business of publishing; he demonstrated the
fact that volumes could be well made in the face
of world-wide competition and be held true to
the basic principles of good book making; he co-
ordinated scholarship and technical skill; and, al-
though belonging perhaps to the second group of
the great printers in the history of printing, he
must always be permanently included among those
who, through the Book, have benefited mankind.

[ 129 ]V • THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

The tArt of Printing Yields to the
Necessities of PublishingV • THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

The zArt of Printing Yields to the
Necessities of Publishing

For nearly a half century after Christophe Plan-
tin's death in 1589, the Plantin Press, under the
guidance of Jean Moretus and his son Balthazar
Moretus 1, held the proud distinction of being
the most celebrated imprint in the world. Grad-
ually, however, the name of another family forced
itself upon the attention of booklovers, and by
1635 the House of Elzevir had gained a clear
ascendancy over the House of Plantin-Moretus.

The Elzevirs approached the Book as publishers
and distributors rather than as printers, and to
them the quality of workmanship was of secondary
importance. Books were to be printed for the
masses rather than for the cultured class — for an
audience more concerned to secure the subject
matter at a small price than with the dignity or
appropriateness of the vehicle that conveyed it.
The glory that had come to Aldus, to fitienne, and,
in a lesser degree, to Plantin for the beauty of their

[ i33 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

volumes meant little to the Elzevirs: they saw in
the world-wide demand for books, stimulated by
the embryonic efforts of the Plantin Press to
establish branches and agencies, a promising op-
portunity for commercial success, provided they
could extend and standardize the new business of
publishing, and supply their product at attractive
prices.

The House of Elzevir includes a larger number
of names than any other dynasty associated with
the Book. Starting with Louis Elzevir, whom we
first met as foreman in Plantin's office in Ley den
in 1583, down through Daniel Elzevir, with whose
death in 1680 the business of the Elzevirs came to
an end, there are no less than fourteen individual
members of the family in direct line who con-
tributed their part toward the output and the dis-
tribution of the Elzevir volumes. Yet, in spite of
this large number, only a few of the names deserve
permanent record.

Louis Elzevir 1, the founder of the House, had
served his apprenticeship as a binder in Louvain.
In 1580 it became difficult for Protestants to con-
duct their affairs in the Catholic provinces of
Flanders, so Louis, together with many others of
his religious faith, crossed over into Holland with
his family, and settled in Leyden, joining there
the refugees from other cities. The University
[ 134]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

which William the Silent had founded in Leyden
to commemorate the successful resistance made by
its citizens against the Spanish siege, had attracted
so many of the learned scholars of Europe that
Leyden, at this moment, was the literary center of
the world.

Here Louis Elzevir established a bookshop and
accepted orders for bookbinding from the students •
and the professors of the University. Little success
came to this new adventure. The class to which
books most naturally appealed was not that most
favored in worldly possessions, and the war condi-
tions that had existed so long had still further
depleted the slender purses. At the University of
Leyden, as at other universities during this period,
it was a common practice for students and even for
professors to rent their textbooks or to loan them,
exchanging one with another.

This was the situation in which Louis Elzevir
found himself when Christophe Plantin arrived in
Leyden, a refugee from the " Spanish Fury " in
Antwerp. Elzevir was only too glad to accept the
great printer's proposition that he abandon his own
unprofitable business and become foreman of the
new Plantin printing office. Plantin was well aware
that Louis had no knowledge whatever of typog-
raphy or presswork, but this deficiency he could
himself supply. He counted upon him to be of

[ i35 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

service particularly in marketing the books after
they were produced. Elzevir also, from his ex-
perience as University Bookseller, possessed a
knowledge of what titles were most likely to prove
successful} and this was of distinct value to the
older man.

When peace was restored in Antwerp in 1585,
two years after the association between Louis El-
zevir and Christophe Plantin began, Christophe
decided to return to his former home. The Leyden
office had developed to a point where it was profit-
able, so, instead of closing it, Plantin continued it
as a branch of the Plantin Press at Antwerp. With
his own departure, however, it became necessary
for him to place in charge some one with greater
knowledge of typography and presswork than
Louis Elzevir possessed, so Christophe appointed
as his successor his own son-in-law, Francis
Raphelengius. Under these circumstances, Louis
Elzevir had to make new plans for his future.

During these two years spent with the great
master printer Elzevir had added much to his own
personal asset. He could never hope to become a
practical printer, but he had assimilated through
his association a sufficient knowledge of printing to
make himself a thoroughly practical publisher.
His vision was to establish bookselling branches
all over the world, and eventually to have each
[136]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

branch in the hands, not of a representative, but of
an actual member of his family. This seemed an
ambitious program, but as Louis Elzevir was
blessed with six sons, he started with an unusual
advantage in having a substantial basis for estab-
lishing his publishing dynasty. During the years in
which he had acted as University Bookseller, and
even during the two years of association with Plan-
tin, Louis had carried on an extensive correspond-
ence with scholars in France, Germany, and Italy,
with the result that at the time of his death, in
1617, the name of Elzevir was already well known
throughout the intellectual world as being closely
associated with the Book. During the fifteen years
following his death Louis Elzevir's dream was
realized. The House of Elzevir came to be directly
represented in practically every bookselling center
of Europe, in almost every instance by some actual
member of the Elzevir family.

The scheme adopted by the founder, and scru-
pulously followed by his successors, was to have
each of the younger Elzevirs, as he became old
enough to take on business responsibilities, serve
a certain number of months in each of the branch
offices, this being a definite part of his training for
the business. Louis Elzevir himself established the
precedent by passing several months in each year
in the book centers of Germany and France. His

[ 137 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

son Bonaventura, before, attaining the age of
twenty-three had already spent considerable time
in the branches established in the most important
cities of Italy. As time went on, the grandchildren
and the nephews were allocated to the different
agencies as far south as Naples and as far north as
Copenhagen.

The responsibilities of these representatives of
the House of Elzevir went considerably beyond
watching the routine of the bookselling business or
in disposing of the product of the Elzevir Press.
New manuscripts were to be secured from the
leading writers of the time upon pertinent sub-
jects, and no rival publishing house could compete
with the Elzevirs in their contact with scholars and
writers. A surprisingly large number of English
authors turned to them for the publication of their
works, and so highly was the imprint of the Elze-
virs regarded that the House was able to pirate
almost any foreign author not only with impunity
but with his appreciative approval. A curious letter
written by Balzac in 1648, after the Elzevirs had
issued an unauthorized edition of his Lettres
Choisies, reads:

" I am under larger obligations to you than you
may yourselves fully realize. I consider the right
of Roman citizenship to be a small privilege com-
pared with that which you have conferred upon me
[138]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

in including my name in the list of your authors.
This is to give me rank with the consuls and sena-
tors of Romej I am made an associate of the
Ciceros and the Sallusts. What glory comes to me
when I can say, ' I am a citizen of the Republic
of Immortals} I have been received into the circle
of the demigods.'"

At the time of Louis Elzevir's death, in 1617,
two of his sons were conducting bookshops, one at
Utrecht and the other at The Hague — both affili-
ated with the Leyden bookshop. As a result of a
family council, the oldest son, Matthew, and the
youngest son, Bonaventura, formed a partnership
to carry on their father's bookselling and publish-
ing business, and Isaac, Matthew's son, established
at Leyden the first Elzevir printing office. There
are perhaps a hundred books dated earlier than
1617 which bear the imprint of Louis Elzevir, but
these were printed for and not by him. With this
new association of the younger men the Elzevir
imprint really begins. This second period in the
Elzevir history lasted from 1617 to 1625, and
while the two printers issued over one hundred
separate titles, their work was of significance in the
history of publishing rather than of printing.

By this time the independence of the Dutch Re-
public had become assured, but the Thirty Years'
War was just beginning in Germany. Thus, while

[139]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

the new Elzevir firm was secure from interruption
at home, much initiative, diplomacy, and ability
were required to establish and maintain business
connections in such book-trade centers as Frank-
fort, Leipzig, or Cologne. The business sagacity
of these publishers, which so steadily developed
their system of distributing books in spite of the
surrounding obstacles, entitles them to enduring
fame far more than does the typographical quality
of their volumes. They were keen enough to fore-
see that a natural development of the new Dutch
nation would result in an unprecedented demand
for books, and that, so far as foreign countries were
concerned, the supremacy of the Dutch fleet must
drive trade away from Venice and Genoa directly
to Haarlem and Amsterdam.

It was a period of controversies, and controversy
always stimulates the demand for books. The doc-
trines of Arminius interested a class of readers
which previously had been little attracted to litera-
ture of any kind. Such subjects as predestination,
redemption, depravity, and conversion, discussed
by the Remonstrants and the contra-Remonstrants,
produced arguments the man in the street had to
read in order to know on which side he stood. No
wonder that Isaac Elzevir recognized that the mo-
ment had arrived to start his printing office in Ley-
den, to supplement the bookstore and the publish-
[ 140]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

ing business his grandfather had established, now
being run by his father and his uncle.

Isaac Elzevir became University Printer in
1620. It is sometimes difficult to understand the
exact relations and responsibilities of a University
Printer to his University, so such details as the
records contain of the basis of Isaac's appointment
are of more than passing interest. Whereas his
predecessors had received as much as two hundred
florins for their annual compensation, Isaac re-
ceived but fifty florins, yet the material advantage
of the title was such that the value of the position,
even at the smaller stipend, became greater than
it had ever been. In the agreement between the
University and Isaac it was stipulated that the
printer must at all times hold one of his presses at
the disposal of members of the University faculty,
and, during certain periods, two presses. Presum-
ably these presses were expected to turn out the
necessary instruction papers required in the vari-
ous classes.

Isaac agreed to place at the service of the Uni-
versity correctors who were competent to supervise
the text in any language j one copy of each book
printed had to be deposited in the University li-
brary, and the general supervision of the subject
matter in the volumes was regulated by the States-
General. In exchange for these services, the printer

t Hi ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

received his modest financial honorarium, was per-
mitted to place his title of Printer to the Univer-
sity upon his volumes, and a portion of the Univer-
sity quadrangle was set apart for his printing office,
free of rent.

When Matthew Elzevir retired, Bonaventura
took his nephew Abraham into partnership with
him. Isaac still continued to print the volumes
published by his uncle and his brother, in addition
to exercising his prerogative as University Printer.
When Isaac retired in 1625 Bonaventura and
Abraham took over his printing establishment, and
again united the business of typography with that
of publishing. This period, from 1625 to 1652,
marks the high-water point of typographical ex-
cellence in the Elzevir volumes.

The importance of the Elzevir printing office
was largely enhanced by the purchase of the ma-
terials in the private printing office of Theodorus
Erpenius, who at that time was one of the few
printers in Europe who possessed fonts of Oriental
type. This Erpenius was a prominent scholar in the
faculty of the University of Leyden. He found
himself handicapped in instructing his students
in the Oriental languages by the lack of proper
textbooks, and, to overcome this, he established in
his own house a printing office in which he under-
took to produce at his own expense the manuscripts
[ 142 ]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

of Eastern authors. Unfortunately, he died when
only forty years of age, before he was able to ac-
complish his ambitious undertaking, leaving his
widow in possession of the type designs and
molds, into which he had put the entire family
fortune. When she endeavored to realize upon
this property, the University advanced definite
objections, being unwilling to permit so valuable a
collection to pass out of the country, yet having no
funds of their own available for purchase. In this
emergency Isaac Elzevir came to the rescue, and
supplied the capital to take over the property. As
a result of this, Isaac's honorarium as University
Printer was raised to one hundred florins, but with
the distinct understanding that the cherished Ori-
ental types should never be removed from Leyden.

In 1629 Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevir
began the publication of a series of Latin classics,
starting with Horace and Ovid, in a reduced size
which copied very closely the proportions of the
famous Aldine classics. Isaac had introduced this
innovation, but his successors developed the idea,
which reached its highest point in the charming
Caesar and Terence of 1635. For this series they
had Christophe van Dyke cut an entirely new series
of type of smaller size, based upon the Roman
designs, recut under the influence of Geoff roi Tory,
but still further refined and standardized.

[ 143]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

This new format did not at first meet with uni-
versal approval. " The Elzevirs are certainly great
typographers," the learned scholar De Put wrote
to Heinsius. " I can but think, however, that their
reputation will suffer in connection with these tri-
fling little volumes with such slender type. An
author like Horace deserves to be produced in a
dignified form with a certain majesty of appear-
ance, and not to have his thoughts buried in shabby
little type like this."

But the Elzevirs were building their books on
plans which contemplated the largest possible sale.
They knew that these " trifling " editions of the
classics could be produced more cheaply than the
folios and quartos and octavos, and they also knew
that their greatest market was to be found among
those scholars who though impecunious, yet
coveted and required possession of accurate texts.
These purchasers were quite ready to sacrifice the
luxury that attends ample margins and large types
for the less readable pages and scanter margins
which the House of Elzevir now placed before
them at such attractive prices. The text was found
to be well edited, and the cheaper editions fulfilled
every utilitarian requirement of a book-reading
rather than a book-loving public.

Then, curiously enough, this diminutive for-
mat, which had been adopted solely for commercial
[ i44 ]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

reasons, was accepted by booklovers as quite su-
perior to the larger sizes which had previously met
with such approval! The delicacy of the type de-
signed by Christophe van Dyke, the proportions of
the page, and the compactness of the volumes all
came in for such praise that the Elzevir volumes
were proclaimed as surpassing anything that had
previously been produced in Europe. Looking
backward, it seems incredible that any such verdict
could have been passed. As far as the type is con-
cerned, Van Dyke did his work well, and the press-
work, while varying greatly in different editions,
was sometimes good 3 but by this time the splendid
hand-made paper was being cheapened. Swiss paper
makers were producing at lower cost a sheet made
of inferior rags and with a substituted fiber} and
ink makers had learned the unhappy secret of
economizing by using cheaper ingredients. Com-
pared with the Aldine, the Etienne, or the Plantin
volumes, those produced by the House of Elzevir
were far inferior; but they were so much superior
to anything else that was produced anywhere in the
world during their period that such merits as they
possessed stood out in bold relief. The Caesar,
Terence, and Pliny of 1634-1636 are the finest
examples of the Elzevir volumes. The engraved
title pages — a feature revived from that intro-
duced by the Plantin Press — added beauty to the

[ i45 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

editions even though seldom in keeping with the
typography of the volumes themselves.

The craze for Elzevir volumes is one of the
curious phases in the history of the Book. A volume
called Entretiens sur les Contes de Fees, which was
published as long ago as 1699, contains the follow-
ing comment: " I am acquainted with a man who
denies himself necessities for the sake of collecting
into a library as many little Elzevirs as he can lay
his hands upon. He is dying of hunger, and his
consolation is to be able to say, £ I have all the
poets whom the Elzevirs printed. I have ten ex-
amples of each of them, and all with red letters,
and all of the right date.' n

This halo has hung around these little Elzevirs
even down to the present time, particularly among
those who do not fully understand the compara-
tive merits of the best-printed books of each period.
Unscrupulous rare-book dealers have made many
an extra penny by capitalizing this lack of actual
knowledge. " Priceless little Elzevirs " is a com-
mon expression, yet, to those who know, an Elze-
vir which is two millimeters too short in height, or
which bears any date other than certain " right"
dates, is hardly worth the value of the paper upon
which it is printed.

Nothing prior to 1626 is highly considered. The
best dates are those books which were issued from
[ 146]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

1634 to 1636, and the average height should be
from 125 to 128 millimeters. Anything under 125
millimeters may be a curiosity, but it has little
value. One of the finest Elzevir books, Thomas
a Kempis' Imitation of Christ possesses no date,
but may be recognized by the fact that the folio
which should appear on page 238 is erroneously
printed 248. The rarest and most expensive Elze-
vir volume is L.e Pastissier Frangois, an ancient
cook-book, issued by Louis 111 and Daniel Elzevir
in Amsterdam in 1655. It is poorly printed, and
has absolutely no intrinsic value, but as most of
the copies originally fell into the hands of cooks
(a class not celebrated as preservative bibliophiles),
only ten copies are known to exist.

Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevir both died
in 1652, and the conduct of the business fell upon
Daniel, son of Bonaventura, and John, son of
Abraham. Their best known work was the Imita-
tion of Christ already mentioned. Three years
later Daniel decided to go to Amsterdam, so the
partnership was dissolved, leaving John the sole
representative of the Elzevir traditions in Leyden.
The reputation of the House of Elzevir was on
the wane. John died soon after Daniel left, and
his widow, Eva van Alphen, did her best to carry
on the business. She even secured her appointment
as University Printer; but the burden was too

[ i47 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

heavy. When her son Abraham was old enough,
he was expected to revive the lost prestige, but he
proved unworthy and incapable. The quality of
the workmanship sank lower and lower, and when
Eva died in 1681 the House of Elzevir ceased to
exist in Leyden.

The migration of Daniel Elzevir to Amsterdam
was due to the influence of his cousin, Louis 111,
who had established himself there in 1638 as a
bookseller and publisher. Two years later he
added a modest equipment for producing some of
the volumes he issued. Upon Daniel's arrival in
1655, the two cousins established an Elzevir print-
ing office that completely eclipsed the one at Ley-
den, and gave to it a stability which carried it until
nearly the end of the seventeenth century. This
was really a tribute to the publishing abilities of
the new firm, for, even with the deterioration in
the quality of the Leyden volumes during this
period, they are better made books than those bear-
ing the Amsterdam imprint. Louis retired from the
business in 1665, and Daniel then carried it on
alone until his death in 1680. Daniel had the un-
happy responsibility of guiding his affairs through
the stormy period of the war between Holland and
England, during 1665-1667, which resulted in
transferring the colony of New Amsterdam, now
New York, to the English crown. Five years later,
[ 148 ]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

the disastrous six-years' war with France hastened
the downfall of the Elzevir dynasty.

By this time the direct succession in the Elzevir
family could no longer be maintained. There were
no sons or even nephews to succeed Daniel. His
widow, Anna, made a feeble effort to continue the
line of publications, but the momentum given by
the first Louis, and maintained by his descendants,
could carry the business no farther. The actual
work of the Elzevirs came to an end in Leyden in
1681 and in Amsterdam in 1680.

Aside from the work of the House of Elzevir
in Leyden and Amsterdam, with which the name is
most commonly associated, the branch establish-
ments give impressive evidence of the successful
efforts made by these progressive publishers to
place books within the reach of all the world. The
Elzevir shop in The Hague, presided over by
Louis 11 and later by Bonaventura, was opened in
1590, and was continued until 1661. In Venice, the
Elzevir office, opened in 1622, was located near
the original site of the Aldine Press, and a flourish-
ing agency was conducted in Florence. In England,
the Elzevir volumes were as well known as the
Tauchnitz editions of later date. There was an
Elzevir representative at every Frankfort Fair
during the troublous period of the Thirty Years'
War in Germany, and for a long time the Elzevirs

[ 149]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

held almost a monopoly in supplying Germany
with Dutch, English, and French publications.
The first Louis successfully overcame the attempts
of the French booksellers to prevent foreign com-
petition, and established a large and prosperous
business in Paris, which Bonaventura continued
and increased. In Copenhagen the Elzevir branch,
established by Louis n in 1632, controlled the
book trade in Denmark, and by 1650 Daniel had
secured an equal grasp on volumes sold in Sweden.
Queen Christina even tried to persuade Daniel
Elzevir to add a printing establishment to his pub-
lishing business in Stockholm.

The fact that the Dutch Republic removed the
ban of censorship from the press more fully than
any state in Europe made the success of the El-
zevirs easier to accomplish. The States-General
simply forbade the publication of libelous vol-
umes, or of any literature directed against the Re-
public or its Allies. If the Elzevirs were in doubt
regarding any of their publications, they adopted
the expedient of omitting the usual name of printer
and place of issue. Sometimes Lugduni (Lyons)
was substituted for Lugduni Batavorum (Leyden).
Such mythical imprints as Jean Sambix and Nic
Schouten have been identified as Elzevir volumes.
This freedom from governmental or ecclesiastical
conflict enabled them to devote their time and ef-
[ 150]THE HOUSE OF ELZEVIR

forts steadfastly to their single purpose of publish-
ing, and while the House of Elzevir has no great
typographical masterpiece to its credit, it has no
such financial calamity as Plantin's Polyglot Bible.

The Elzevirs were not scholars, Daniel being
the only member of the dynasty who made any
pretense to cultivated attainments; but, beginning
with the first Louis, each possessed such apprecia-
tion of scholarship that he surrounded himself and
his work with those who could supply that which
he himself lacked. Chief among the literary ad-
visers of the House was Daniel Heinsius, the
learned secretary of the Synod of Dort, and other
less famous but equally valuable collaborators kept
watch over the editorial end of the publications,
while the generations of Elzevirs covered the earth .
in establishing their branches and agencies.

During the century from 1583 'to 1681 the
House of Elzevir published 1608 separate works
or editions, of which about 90 per cent, were in
Latin, the other texts being in French, Dutch,
Greek, Italian, and Arabic. These included the
classic# in Greek and Latin, theology, metaphysics,
medicine, political science, natural science, history,
and biography.

The dramatic publications included Moliere and
Corneille. Curiously enough, in view of the period,
the Elzevirs issued but two editions of the Bible —

[151]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

one in Dutch and one in French, and editions of
the New Testament in Greek, for use in the Uni-
versity. The almost total absence of any work by
the old standard authorities of the Church, so con-
spicuous in the publication of their predecessors,
is ample evidence that the demand for this class
of ecclesiastical literature had waned.

Had the Elzevirs been better printers they might
have repeated the long continuation of the Plantin-
Moretus dynasty. As it was, they developed the
business of publishing to a point never before at-
tained, and established a basis upon which our
present system of publishing squarely rests. While
their contribution to the history of the Book was
less artistic and more commercial, it was no less
vital. No other publishing house ever produced
so extensive or so comprehensive a list of important
volumes. No matter how well printed a book may
be, the full accomplishment of its message cannot
be secured unless it is placed within the reach of
those who wish to absorb it. By reducing the cost
and by developing the methods of distribution,
the Elzevirs made it easy for the masses to secure
books. In accomplishing their commercial success,
who shall say that they did not serve the advance-
ment of higher education in boldly departing from
the previously conceived idea that books were in-
tended primarily for the wealthy class?

[ 152 ]VI JOHN BASKERVILLE

bright flights in the 'Dark tAge of PrintingVI- JOHN BASKERVILLE

Bright Rights in the 'Dark zAge of Printing

Booklovers from the middle of the seventeenth
century to the middle of the eighteenth found
their only consolation in turning to the work of
the great master printers of the past. After the
issue of the Elzevir classics in the i63o's the de-
cline in materials and workmanship in printed vol-
umes all over the world was steady and rapid. So
complete was the degradation of the once noble art
that it would have required a prophet of uncanny
foresight to predict a possibility of a return to any-
thing even approaching its former glory. That
the revival should have been accomplished by an
amateur, with no previous experience in the mak-
ing of books, and of a personality that invited
criticism and opposition, makes the fact that much
the more surprising.

John Baskerville is the most curious character
included among those who contributed vitally to
the history of the Book. He was born in 1706, in
the small parish of Wolverley, in Worcestershire,

[155]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

England. Beyond this, little is known of him until
his seventeenth year, when he entered the service
of a clergyman at King's Norton, as a footman.
Fortunately for the young man, his master's obses-
sion was to assist his congregation in securing an
education. When he discovered that his footman
was no ordinary servant, and that he was particu-
larly skilled in penmanship, the clergyman re-
leased him from his more menial duties to make
him instructor in the art of writing to the young
people of the parish.

By this accident Baskerville first became inter-
ested in letters and lettering, and although it was
many years before he applied the skill and ex-
perience thus developed to the account of the Book,
the formation of that little parish writing class
contributed its part to the reclaiming of printing
as an art.

Baskerville's reputation as a writing master
grew, and it was not long before he was offered a
position in King Edward's School in Birmingham.
This was the period in England when the middle
classes were coming into power. The battle of Cul-
loden, in 1745, had destroyed for all times the
theory of the divine right of kings. The preach-
ing of Whitefield and John Wesley was making
the people think, and giving them a realization of
their own resources. It was the period when Eng-
[156]JOHN BASKERVILLE

land began its rule of the East, and, by gaining
possession of Montreal in 1760, extended its power
in the New World. The British Empire was in
process of being created by the commercial achieve-
ments of its middle class.

Birmingham at that time was one of the great
middle-class towns in England. It was the freest
town in all England. There were no trade guilds,
no unions, no religious restrictions. Young Basker-
ville was a " free thinker," and all that he heard
about Birmingham made him eager to cast his
fortunes with those who, in other localities, would
have been known as heretics. Thus Birmingham in
1733 received a citizen who, with Watt and his
steam engine, and Wyatt with his spinning ma-
chines, was to give additional glory to its name by
making it the center of the eighteenth century
revival of the art of printing.

Soon after settling himself in Birmingham, and
to give his fondness for lettering a fuller expres-
sion, Baskerville issued a card on which an adver-
tisement was inscribed: "Grave Stones cut, in any
of the Hands, by John Baskerville, Writing Mas-
ter." Two examples of this work came down to
modern times, and show no slight skill and knowl-
edge of calligraphy. In these stones the basic prin-
ciples on which his famous type design eventually
rested may be easily traced. One of them stood in

[157]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

the churchyard at Edgbaston, and the other, for-
merly in the church of Handsworth, is said to have
been purchased by Baskerville after his rise to af-
fluence, and kept in his luxurious mansion as a
souvenir of his early struggles. In spite of the vain-
glorious attributes he displayed in later years, he
was never ashamed of his humble beginnings.

Even with his added avocation, Baskerville's in-
come did not correspond with his growing ambi-
tions, and he cast his eye about to see how he could
improve his condition. It so happened that a man
named John Taylor had come to Birmingham
about the same time that Baskerville did, and had
established there a japanning business. The novelty
of his highly enamelled, painted snuff boxes and
trays brought him immediate prosperity, and Tay-
lor's modest shop had already grown to consider-
able proportions. Baskerville carefully examined
these snuff boxes, curious to learn the secret of
wealth they seemed to contain. He knew that he
was more skilled in lettering and decorating than
any of Taylor's workmen, and he became convinced
that if he could solve the secret of the varnish,
which gave to the japanned articles their greatest
charm, he could improve upon the product of the
Taylor business.

The story goes that Baskerville discovered a
habit of Taylor's which gave him the opportunity
[158]JOHN BASKERVILLE

to learn the secret. Once in so often the japanner
would make the rounds of the shops, ordering the
various ingredients that went into his varnish. On
one such occasion Baskerville carefully trailed
him, and in each shop left instructions for Mr.
Taylor's order to be duplicated and sent to his own
house. In this way was disclosed not only what
materials were used, but the exact proportion of
each.

Whether this story be true or not, it is charac-
teristic of Baskerville's ingenuity and of the
thoroughness that entered into everything he un-
dertook. He now abandoned his writing class, and
left others to cut letters on gravestones. So many
innovations were introduced at his newly estab-
lished japanning shop, and his goods were so far
superior to the Taylor product, that the erstwhile
footman soon found himself in comfortable cir-
cumstances. In 1742 he secured a patent for making
thin metal plates, which were varnished and
japanned to "produce fine glowing Mohogany
Colour and Black, no way inferior to the most
perfect India goods, or an imitation of Tortoise
shell which greatly excels Nature, both in Col-
our and Hardness." Within a few years he had
amassed a sufficient fortune to warrant the erection
of an imposing house, called Easy Hill, at an ex-
pense of £6000.

[ i59 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Derrick, writing to the Earl of Cork in 1760,
gives a graphic account of the Baskerville home:
" His apartments are elegant} his staircase is par-
ticularly curious j and the room in which he dines,
and calls a smoking room, is very handsome. The
grate and furniture belonging to it are, I think,
of bright wrought iron, and cost him a round
sum . . . This ingenious artist carries on a great
trade in the japan way, in which he shewed me
several useful articles, such as candlesticks, stands,
salvers, waiters, bread baskets, tea boards, &c.,
elegantly designed and highly finished. Basker-
ville is a great cherisher of genius, which, wher-
ever he finds it, he loses no opportunity of culti-
vating."

Here, with his wife and step-children, Basker-
ville maintained an establishment in keeping with
that of a successful business man. He was deter-
mined to force his neighbors to take him seriously.
His favorite costume was a green coat edged with
narrow gold lace; a scarlet waistcoat, lavishly
trimmed with goldj and a small, round hat simi-
larly decorated. Not content with making his per-
sonal apparel such as to attract attention, he had a
gorgeous chariot built, in which he drove about
Birmingham behind cream-colored horses capari-
soned with net hangings. The coach itself was a
super-product of his japanning establishment, the
[ 160]JOHN BASKERVILLE

panels being emblazoned with decorations of
flowers and naked cupids. Unfortunately, Basker-
ville's neighbors were not impressed as he thought
they should be by these external evidences of
commercial success, and the records are filled with
correspondence and court proceedings which show
the prospective master printer to have been a past
master in the use of vituperative abuse.

With personal characteristics such as these, one
would scarcely look for such a complete revolution
as Baskerville occasioned in the making of books.
He was a middle-aged man, with ample fortune
and a profitable business, when his attention was
suddenly attracted by the type faces being cut by
William Caslon in London. This was an undertak-
ing that distinctly interested him, for it recalled
those earlier days when he himself had designed
graceful letters, in the execution of which he had
found far more satisfaction than in the less artistic
but more profitable business of japanning.

The specimen sheet of types issued by William
Caslon in 1737 marks the beginning of better
things in the making of books, and the first ap-
pearance of England as a factor in any phase of the
art of printing. At the turn of the century, practi-
cally all the type used in England was being im-
ported from Holland} since the cutting of the
Caslon faces, there has never been any necessity for

[161]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

English printers to seek adequate types beyond
domestic production.

William Caslon was born in 1692 at Cradley,
in Worcestershire, and was apprenticed to a Lon-
don engraver who made a specialty of ornament-
ing gun barrels and locks. After serving his time,
the young man set himself up in a shop of his
own, continuing to practise the engraving he had
learned, and making tools for binders. Sometimes
he was asked to cut lettering for bindings, or to cut
a punch for some special character of type. From
this came an order for a font of Arabic, and the
story goes that when he submitted a sample sheet
of the new Oriental letters, he added his own name,
cut in Roman characters of such beauty that he was
urged to complete the font. From this time on the
Caslon designs dominated English printing, until
Baskerville's innovations forced them for a time
into the background.

The more carefully Baskerville looked into the
Caslon types the more interested he became. Just
as he had seen an opportunity to improve on the
Taylor trays and snuff boxes, he now felt that
he could produce a better letter than Caslon's.
" Amongst the several mechanical Arts that have
engaged my attention," he wrote, " there is no
one which I have pursued with so much steadiness
and pleasure as that of Letter Founding. Having
[ 162 ]JOHN BASKERVILLE

been an early admirer of the beauty of Letters,
I became insensibly desirous of contributing to the
perfection of them. I formed to myself Ideas of
greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and have
endeavoured to produce a Sett of Types according
to what I conceived to be their true proportion.
Mr. Caslon is an Artist to whom the Republic of
Learning has great obligations} his ingenuity has
left a fairer copy for my emulation than any other
master."

This was the second accident that turned Basker-
ville into a new path, and eventually resulted in
rescuing the art of printing from the depths to
which it had fallen, making possible the splendid
Baskerville Virgil of 1757 and successive master-
pieces. Except for the experience in the little
writing school, such proficiency in the art of letter
designing would never have been developed} with-
out the work of Caslon, the incentive for applying
this proficiency might never have suggested itself.

Baskerville realized that if he were going to
produce a superior face of type letters, he must
protect himself by making certain that they were
well printed. In the books of his day the ink was of
inferior quality, and the type page appeared to
poorer advantage than the types warranted because
of the wretched quality of the paper upon which
it was printed. This was of such absorbent nature

[163]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

that the ink sank into it, leaving a dull, gray color
instead of the sharp-cut, brilliant black of the early
master printers. The japanner, who aspired to be a
type designer, suddenly awoke to the fact that to
achieve his ideals he must become a full-fledged
printer, controlling the quality of the ink, the
paper, and the presswork. The tremendously en-
larged proportions of the undertaking might easily
have caused another man to abandon the project —
but obstacles always proved incentives to Basker-
ville, and he plunged into his new profession with
characteristic energy.

It required more than seven years for Basker-
ville to complete to his own satisfaction the ex-
periments necessary to establish his Press. At first
glance, there is a general similarity between the
design of his type and Caslon's, but a closer analy-
sis discloses that Baskerville approached his task
from the standpoint of the writing master rather
than from that of the typographer. In a way, it
was a return to the early idea that a good hand-
written letter was equally good when cut in metal.
The ultra-refinement of the Baskerville charac-
ters produced a delicate effect, but the test of retro-
spection has demonstrated that the design is too
exact, too close to the precision of the engraved
letter, to be wholly satisfying to the eye. It was
the first time a Roman type face had shown a
[ 164]JOHN BASKERVILLE

tendency to depart from the basic principles of the
old-style line established by Nicolas Jenson in the
fifteenth century, and the innovation pointed
the way toward the " modern" type designs
shortly to be introduced by Didot and Bodoni.

The appearance of Baskerville's first specimen
sheets caused a riot of discussion. Those who liked
the type were enthusiastic in their praise j those
who did not like it went to equal extremes in
denouncing it. The enmities occasioned by Basker-
ville's aggressive personality became immediately
apparent, and there were many critics who so re-
sented the appearance of a rival to Caslon that
they were unfairly biased in their estimates.
Throughout the whole controversy, Benjamin
Franklin was Baskerville's profound admirer and
friend. Franklin once sent him a letter which dis-
closes how strong these prejudices were:

Craven Street, London, 1760

Dear Sir, —

Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prej-
udice some have entertained against your work.
Soon after I returned, discoursing with a gentle-
man concerning the artists of Birmingham, he said
you would be the means of blinding all the readers
of the nation, for the strokes of your letters being
too thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could

[165]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

never read a line of them without pain. " I
thought," said I, " you were going to complain of
the gloss on the paper some object to." " No, no,"
said he; "I have heard that mentioned, but it is
not that: it is in the form and cut of the letters
themselves; they have not that height and thick-
ness of the stroke which makes the common print-
ing so much more comfortable to the eye." You see
this gentleman was a connoisseur. In vain I en-
deavoured to support your character against the
charge; he knew what he felt, and could see the
reason of it, and several other gentlemen among
his friends had made the same observation, etc.
Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischie-
vously bent to try his judgement, I stepped into my
closet, tore off the top of Mr. Caslon's Specimen,
and produced it to him as yours, brought with me
from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining
it, since he spoke to me, and could not for my life
perceive the disproportion he mentioned, desiring
him to point it out to me. He readily undertook it,
and went over the several founts, showing me
everywhere what he thought instances of that
disproportion; and declared that he could not then
read the specimen without feeling very strongly
the pain he had mentioned to me. I spared him that
time the confusion of being told that these were
the types he had been reading all his life, with so
[ 166 ]john baskerville

much ease to his eyes 5 the types his adored Newton
is printed with, on which he has pored not a little j
nay, the very types his own book is printed with
(for he is himself an author), and yet never dis-
covered the painful disproportion in them till he
thought they were yours.

I am, etc.

B. Franklin

Baskerville himself was satisfied with the fin-
ished appearance of his characters, " I cannot fore-
bear," he says in a letter to Dodsley in 1752," say-
ing they please me, as I can make nothing more
correct, nor shall you see anything of mine much
less so."

During this long period of experimenting with
his type design and cutting, Baskerville applied
himself also to other problems which had to be
solved. The paper was of paramount importance.
In connection with this he had a genuine inspira-
tion: if the paper could be made less absorbent,
the ink would lie upon the surface and thus retain
the beauty of its solid black — and what more ef-
fective means could be devised to accomplish this
than to treat the sheets with a thinned varnish, and
then to press them between heated metal plates,
manufactured under his patent in his own japan-
ning establishment? Then came the question of

t 167 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

the printing. The hand presses then in vogue were
improved upon. " My presses," he wrote, " are
exactly on the same construction of other people's.
But perhaps more accurate than any ever formed
since the invention of the art of printing. To ex-
plain myself: I have been able to produce three
more perfect plans than have before appeared in
a letter press. . . All my presses were made at
home under my own inspection."

The ink was manufactured after a recipe result-
ing from Baskerville's long experiments. " He
took of the finest and oldest linseed oil three gal-
lons," Hansard records. " This was put into a
vessel capable of holding four times the quantity,
and boiled with a long-continued fire till it ac-
quired a certain thickness or tenacity, according to
the quality of the work it was intended to print,
and which was judged of by putting small quan-
tities upon a stone to cool, and then taking it up
between the fingers and the thumb; on opening
which, if it drew into a thread an inch long or
more, it was considered sufficiently boiled. This
mode of boiling can only be acquired by long prac-
tice, and requires particular skill and care in the
person who superintends the operation, as, for
want of this, the most serious consequences have
very frequently occurred; the oil thus prepared
was suffered to cool, and had then a small quantity
[168]JOHN BASKERVILLE

of black or amber resin dissolved in it, after which
it was allowed some months to subside j it was then
mixed with the fine black, before named, to a
proper thickness, and ground for use."

" It was not until Baskerville," Hansard adds,
" that any attention was turned to this most essen-
tial article. His scrutinizing eye was always in
search after improvement, and his mind, quick as
his vision, ready to mature the first idea. It was
reserved for him to discover, after ... a lapse
of time, a superior kind of black for the purpose
required, and to this success may be attributed in
a great measure the superiority of his printing."

With his types cut, his ink and paper perfected,
and his press set up, John Baskerville in 1754 an-
nounced his first book — a Virgil in royal quarto;
but it was not until three years later that the com-
pleted work appeared. " It is not my desire to
print many books," he wrote, " but such only as
are books of Consequence, of intrinsic merit, or
established Reputation, and which the public may
be pleased to see in an elegant dress, and to pur-
chase at such a price as will repay the extraordinary
care and experience that must necessarily be be-
stowed upon them." As to the style of the typog-
raphy, Baskerville had learned from some source
the value of simplicity. While other books of his
time were prostituted by incongruous woodcuts,

[ 169]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

decorations, and atrocious typographic flowers,
with no attempt at coordination with the type,
the new master printer secured his effect by using
ample margins and by keeping the type page itself
from being over-crowded. This principle was also
carried out in his splendid title pages — the best
produced up to that time — where the amount of
lettering was reduced to a minimum, in marked
contrast with the heavily worded titles which were
characteristic of the period.

It is difficult to determine Baskerville's status
as a scholar, owing to the personal prejudices of
his contemporaries. What little is known of his
history seems to indicate that he was wholly self-
educated, but that does not necessarily warrant
Mark Noble's statement that he was " ignorant of
literature to a wonderful degree." Such of his
letters as are preserved, notably those to Horace
Walpole, are as grammatically correct and well
written as those of educated men of his period.
Dr. Alexander Carlyle records, " He dined with
us . . . and acquitted himself so well that Rob-
ertson pronounced him a man of genius, while
James Adam and I thought him a prating pedant."

At all events, Baskerville appreciated the im-
portance of accurate texts. In his Proposal for his
first volume he announced that " by the advice and
assistance of several learned men," he planned to
[ 170]JOHN BASKERVILLE

issue " from the Cambridge edition, corrected with
all possible care, an elegant edition of Virgil" As
a further precaution in reading the proof, he de-
manded that " two people must be concerned} the
one must name every letter, capital, point, ref-
erence, accent, etc. j that is, in English, must spell
every part of every word distinctly, and note
down every difference in a book prepared on pur-
pose." With these declared intentions, Baskerville
may perhaps be absolved from personal responsi-
bility for the glaring errors which appear in some
of his later classics.

Robert Dodsley, London publisher and play-
wright, was another admirer of Baskerville, and
Dodsley was of no little service to the printer with
his advice and in his efforts to place the Baskerville
publications on the market. The Birmingham
printer surely stood in need of all the assistance he
could receive! The expenses incurred in cutting
his types and in conducting his experiments in ink,
paper, and presses, had proved a disastrous drain
upon the resources of the japanning business, and
with the publication of his first volume Baskerville
found the publishers and booksellers almost solidly
arrayed against him. This was the price he paid
for the patronizing attitude he assumed and the
antagonizing personality which entered into all
his business intercourse.

[ 171 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

In spite of the discouragements, the Virgil ap-
peared in 1757, and with its publication Basker-
ville's reputation as a master printer was estab-
lished. His rivals and critics might laugh at his
vainglorious boasts and attack him for his bad
manners, but they could not gainsay the fact that
he had made good on all his claims. From that
moment the Caslon types lost their popularity —
not to be regained for a hundred years. The hot-
pressed paper, far from " blinding all the readers
in the nation," was admired and imitated, and was
the forerunner of the modern " English finish "
and " coated " stock. The ink established a new
standard, and the presswork, a strictly in Register,
one line falling upon the Back of the other, which
preserves the Colour and Beauty of the Whole,"
is a model for all time.

The bookloving world now began to sing the
praises of the new master in the art of printing,
who, for the first time, had given England the
supremacy. " His types are cut with much spirit,"
wrote Fournier, the famous French type founder,
" his Italic being the best in any foundry in Eng-
land ... his editions printed from these new
types . . . are real masterpieces. Some are upon
hot-pressed paper, and although they are a little
fatiguing to the eye, we cannot deny that they are
the most beautiful things to be seen in this sort
[ 172 ]JOHN BASKERVILLE

of work." Benjamin Franklin subscribed for six
copies of the Virgil, and pronounced it " the most
curiously printed of any book hitherto done in
the world." The Abbe de Fontenai describes the
paper as " so glossy and of such a perfect polish
that we would suppose it made of silk rather than
of linen." Macaulay referred to the Virgil as " the
first of that series of books which went forth to
astonish all the librarians of the world."

The decade that followed the publication of the
Virgil—1757-1766 — produced a succession of
Baskerville volumes which demonstrated that the
new Press was founded upon sound principles.
The Birmingham printer had built on an enduring
basis. There was the Milton of 1758, which marks
the first affiliation Baskerville was able to make with
a London publisher} in 1760 appeared the Book
of Common Prayer — a monument to his unsatis-
factory experience as Printer to the University of
Cambridge} there was the splendid edition of
Addison, in four volumes, printed in 1761 for the
Tonsons, who continued to act as his publishers} a
year later appeared Baskerville's Horace, the most
beautiful of all his publications, in which he grati-
fied his ambition to produce a pocket classic along
the lines of the Elzevir editions, but better
conceived.

Baskerville received far greater recognition in

[ i73 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

foreign countries than in England. The jealousy
and ill will of his rivals were aggravated by his
success, and their antagonism was a factor in
preventing him from receiving adequate financial
returns. Except for the continuing profits from the
japanning business, the creation of typographic
masterpieces must long since have ceased. " I must
starve," Baskerville wrote Franklin, " had I no
other dependence." Again, the harassed printer
wrote Horace Walpole, " It is surely a particular
hardship that I should not get Bread in my own
country after having acquired the Reputation of
excelling in the most useful Art Known to Man-
kind."

Disheartened, and perhaps questioning how long
the japanning business could stand the financial
strain, Baskerville at various times tried to sell
his types and equipment to France, Russia, and
Denmark. The greatest appreciation of his work
came from France, and at one time, in 1767, it
seemed likely that an arrangement might be com-
pleted to make the transfer to Paris. Benjamin
Franklin acted as Baskerville's envoy, but the
Royal treasury was too impoverished to permit
the necessary outlay.

Piqued by this new disappointment, Baskerville
announced his retirement, and he turned the Press
over to his senior workman, Robert Martin. This
[i74]JOHN BASKERVILLE

caused unrestrained delight to his persistent critics
and detractors. They tried to twist his abandoning
of his projects into an admission of defeat, but the
splendid and enduring monuments already created
could not be talked away by jealous tongues. The
explanation undoubtedly lies in the financial aspect.
Baskerville was convinced at last that he could only
continue to gratify his expression in the Art of
Printing by encroaching dangerously on his re-
duced capital j and he had no idea of ending his life
in poverty. The fact that at his death but £12,000
remained intact shows that from a practical stand-
point he acted with wisdom and foresight.

Just what the arrangement was between Basker-
ville and Martin is not clear; but in 1769, when
the great printer discovered that his successor was
playing hand in glove with his deadliest and most
vituperative enemy, Nicholas Boden, in producing
a Bible, he returned to the command of the Press
with all his old-time fury, issued a competing
edition, far inferior to his Cambridge Bible, but
much more successful, and fought Boden to a
standstill in the newspapers, in court, and in the
bookshops. From that time until his death on Janu-
ary 8, 1775, Baskerville remained the head of his
establishment. About two years before he died he
brought out a superb edition of Ariosto for the
Brothers Molini of Paris.

[ i7S 1MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

The records show that a few months after Bas-
kerville's death his widow sold such printed stock
as remained in the warehouse to a Worcester book-
seller. She experienced more difficulty in realizing
on the types. A few fonts were sold at auction to
English printers, but it was not until three years
later that the bulk of the material was purchased
for £3000 by Beaumarchais, the French drama-
tist, on behalf of the Societe Litteraire-Typo-
graphique. The chief use made by the Frenchman
of this type was in a pretentious but ill-fated edi-
tion of Voltaire's Works, which was not completed
until 1789. For a long time it was believed that the
Baskerville types were melted down to make bul-
lets for the French revolutionists, but later evi-
dence shows that they existed and were in use as
late as 1806. Thus, through the indifference of the
times, England lost her opportunity to preserve
the equipment that had brought typographic glory
to her for the first time. The only Baskerville
relics now held in England are a few Greek types
at the Clarendon Press, Oxford — examples of
the only characters the great master cut which
were unsuccessful.

Ill fortune continued to pursue Baskerville even
after his death. In his will he stipulated that " the
Devise of my Goods and Chatties is on this Ex-
press Condition, that my Wife, in Concert with my
1176 ]JOHN BASKERVILLE

Executors, do Cause my Body to be Buried in a
Conical Building on my own premises, in a vault
which I have prepared for it." In carrying out these
instructions, it was found necessary to place the
body in an upright position. Here it rested for
nearly fifty years, in spite of the fact that Basker-
ville House, as Easy Hill had come to be called,
had long since passed out of the hands of the
family, and had been razed to the ground by fire
during the Birmingham riots of 1791. In 1821
some workmen, engaged in digging gravel on the
premises, discovered the leaden coffin, which was
disinterred, and the remains were found to be in
an extraordinary state of preservation. For the
next four or five years the casket was placed on
exhibition in a plumber's shop in Birmingham,
admission being charged to the curious.

In 1829 John Rylands, who had purchased Bas-
kerville House, indignant over the lack of respect
being shown to the memory of the famous printer,
took it upon himself to put an end to the exhibition
of the remains. St. Philip's Church, in Birming-
ham, refused to allow the body to be reinterred in
its churchyard because of Baskerville's alleged
atheism, and a like refusal would probably have
been given by Christ Church except that, by a
subterfuge, the coffin was actually placed in a vault
there before the higher authorities became aware

[ i77 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

of it. This explains why no record was made of the
burial, and why all trace of the location of the coffin
was lost. It was not until 1893 that the remains
were discovered, identified, and marked with a
proper inscription. But Nemesis was still to pursue
the unfortunate printer. Only a few years later,
the expansion of Birmingham made it necessary
to wipe out Christ Church. Again the leaden casket
was moved — this time to the catacombs of the
Church of England Cemetery at Warstone Lane.
Here it now rests in — it is to be hoped — its
final burial place.

The charge of atheism, which prevented Basker-
ville's body from being placed beside that of his
wife in St. Philip's churchyard, was the result of
his " free thinking," and especially because of a
clause in his will which stipulated that he should
not be buried in consecrated ground: " I have a
Hearty Contempt of all Superstition the Farce of
a Consecrated Ground, the Irish Barbarism of
Sure and Morality casually Intermixt with It to be
the most Impudent Abuse of Common Sense which
Ever was Invented to Befool Mankind. I Expect
some srewd Remark will be made on this my
Declaration by the Ignorant and Bigotted who can-
not Distinguish between Religion and Superstition,
and are Taught to Believe morality (by which I
understand all the Duties a man owes to God and
[178]JOHN BASKERVILLE

his fellow Creatures) is not Sufficient to entitle him
to Divine favour with professing to believe as
they Call It Certain Absurd Doctrines and mys-
teries of which they have no more Conception
than a Horse."

" John Baskerville," writes Read, " was a bun-
dle of paradoxes. He was an exemplary son and
an affectionate, judicious husband, but full of per-
sonal animosities. . . In person he was a shriv-
elled old coxcomb, but in spirit he was a worker
of unquenchable energy. Peevish in temper, he
was a charming host. . . The one thing that rec-
onciled all was his strong personality. Whatever
else he was, he was never commonplace. Whatever
he did bore the living marks of John Baskerville."
Dibdin estimates him as " a wonderful creature as
an artist, but a vain and silly man."

It is interesting to conjecture what Baskerville
might have accomplished had his disposition been
such as to invite cooperation instead of attracting
antagonism. Perhaps it is fair to assume that this
pugnacious attribute made him what he was. A
gentle nature would scarcely have stooped to the
subterfuge (supposing the story to be true) prac-
tised in discovering Mr. Taylor's secrets of japan-
ning. Without the substantial means supplied by
this commercial enterprise, the Baskerville Press
could not have come into being. Except for his love

[ i79 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

of competition he would hardly have entered the
lists against so able a typefounder as William
Caslon.

The fact remains that John Baskerville, regard-
less of his personal eccentricities, was 'the one
influence that brought about the renaissance of
printing in the eighteenth century, and laid the
foundations for the three great printers — Firmin
Didot, in Paris; Giambattista Bodoni, in Parma;
and Joachim Ibarra, in Madrid — who were to
follow him. His work — original and artistic in
conception, painstaking and thorough in its execu-
tion — has its own place for its own merits among
the typographical monuments of the world. Dib-
din said of him, " He united in a singularly happy
manner the elegance of Plantin with the clearness
of the Elzevirs." He did more than this: like the
humanists of the fourteenth century, he accepted
truth wherever he found it, unprejudiced as to its
source; and, having absorbed it, gave it out again
in his typography, made richer by his personal
interpretation. His contribution to the evolution
of the Book is inestimable and enduring.

[ 180 ]VII • DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

The 'Birth of z!Modern HookbuildingVII • DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

The 'Birth of ^Modern Hookbuilding

The work of John Baskerville was more fully
appreciated in France than in any other country,
so it was natural that it should have produced its
greatest effect on French bookmaking. Baskerville,
as an Englishman, was ahead of his time. In all the
early history of the Book, England was curiously
behindhand. Even as late as the sixteenth century
there were comparatively few private libraries in
England. During the reign of Henry viii the
English printers and binders found it necessary
to secure legislation to prevent the importation of
Italian books, which was threatening their very
existence. The Venetian binders practised the art
of gold tooling for half a century before it was
introduced into England. Baskerville failed in his
efforts to develop good taste in books in his own
country because at that time good taste did not
exist. The English people of the period knew little
about fine printing and cared less. A law was still
in force in England which required a certificate for
the possession of presses or types, and the privi-

[183]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

leged printer, once protected in his monopoly,
had no incentive to consider the quality of his
work. The English printers, stocked with their
Dutch types, saw no reason to discard them for
new-fangled improvements, particularly as the
reading public as a whole was perfectly satisfied
with the style and quality of bookmaking as it
existed. The masterpieces of Baskerville appealed
only to that limited number who could understand
the underlying principles on which they rested —
who saw in them a veritable renaissance in typo-
graphic art.

During the whole of the Baskerville period vol-
umes were being made well enough in France, but
because they so closely mirrored the French fash-
ions of the day they classified more as boudoir and
drawing-room accessories than as books. The eight-
eenth century found the French people tired of
the pompous majesty and heavy dignity of Louis
xiv. Under the regency of the Due d'Orleans the
spontaneous gaiety of French manners returned,
and found its expression in art and literature as
well as in the styles of wearing apparel. What more
natural than that this joyousness of life should
show itself in the physical format of books?

Books were the vogue in the eighteenth century,
but only if they conformed to the styles of the day.
The history and precedent of the art of printing
[ 184]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

were forgotten in the desire for dainty, decorated
volumes with " pretty " head- and tailpieces, ideal-
istic vignettes, and engraved illustrations. The fad
of book collecting was rampant, and dilettante
amateurs employed the swelling ranks of designers
to engrave their bookplates. In the illustrations
of books idyllic scenes were portrayed where ex-
quisitely dressed shepherds bowed with courtly
gallantry to shepherdesses with powdered coiffures
and beribboned gowns. Le Brun had given way to
Watteau.

The business of bookmaking had assumed a
distinctly national flavor. The printing establish-
ments were no longer complete when equipped
merely with types and presses — each now had to
have designers, engravers, and plate printers as
members of its regular staff. Class distinction in
making books became marked. The booksellers
were the important personages; then came the
printers, who were generously classed as artists j
while last, poorly paid and little respected, came
the designers and engravers. The artists were in a
class by themselves. Gravelot, Eisen, Cochin, and
Moreau supplied graceful but affected illustrations
for volumes of the time, in which the former co-
ordination of woodcut artist and typographer was
conspicuously lacking. The Book became a com-
posite of various arts — a backward step that was

[I»S]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

to serve as a handicap to the expression of printing
as an art down to the time of William Morris.
These French objects of contemporary art were
never accepted by the real booklovers of their
period, even though they served their part in giv-
ing pleasure to the dilettante society of the time.

As the eighteenth century advanced, the quality
of bookmaking became better, and the styles of
typography and decoration were improved by
the elimination of much that was grotesque. The
younger Moreau and St. Aubin were later artists
who contributed to the enrichment of the Works
of Moliere and the Chansons of De Lormel—•
but still after the French style. Moreau was among
the first to make his decorations illustrative of the
text. It was natural that when booklovers had be-
come satiated with the daintiness and elegance of
the current book design, and had realized that with
all its graceful garlands of roses, cupids, and sym-
bols, French typography was as effeminate as it
was conventional and false, they should turn to
the Baskerville type designs with a feeling that
the Englishman, in modernizing the old-style let-
ter, had expressed what the French had really had
in mind and failed to accomplish. Then came the
French Revolution, and the interruption of all
progress in the arts.

During this same period another influence was
[ 186 ]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

at work which was to affect fashions in books. Not
France alone, but all the world was becoming in-
noculated with the " classical " bacillus, which de-
veloped as a result of the excavations in Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii. After the Revolution the
infection spread. By 1790 sculptors, architects, and
painters were basing their work on what they were
pleased to call " Graeco-Roman " art. In England,
Josiah Wedgewood named his pottery " Etruria."
Etrurian designs appeared in the Sevres porcelains
in France, and fragments of Roman ruins and
classical motifs were copied everywhere in popular
bric-a-brac and household furniture. In 1796 Na-
poleon's armies occupied Rome, and many of the
great masterpieces of ancient art were sent to Paris.
The enflamed French people determined to make
a revivified Rome out of their capital city. The
classics themselves came in for an unwonted popu-
larity, and these, of course, must be printed only in
formal types.

Here was where Baskerville's design captivated
the French taste, and when Firmin Ambroise
Didot, in Paris, still further refined the English-
man's light strokes into a letter which possessed the
• actual precision of the engraver, freed from the
effeminacy of the earlier French efforts, he was
hailed as the greatest printer of any country and
of any age.

[187]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

The three countries that responded particu-
larly to this appeal of Graeco-Roman art were
France, where expression came through the printed
works of the DidotSj Italy, where Giambattista
Bodoni issued volumes in formal types of his own
designj and in Spain, where Joachim Ibarra, with
less success, reflected in his printed books the in-
fluence of Bodoni. Inasmuch as the birth of modern
printing and the popularity of the so-called
" modern " type faces (in which the small, finish-
ing strokes of the letter are squared, and emphasis
given to the thick and thin strokes) resulted from
the joint productions of these three sources, they
must always be considered side by side.

The House of Didot really begins with Fran-
cois (1689-1759), whose name is still associated
with the publication of the works of his intimate
friend, the Abbe Prevost. Frangois had eleven
children, two of whom followed in his typographi-
cal footsteps — Frangois Ambroise (1720-1804)
and Pierre Frangois (1732-1793). Frangois Am-
broise made several real contributions to the ad-
vancement of the Book. He invented the fresse
a un coup, on which the impression was secured by
a single pull instead of by a series of separate strik-
ingsj he modified Fournier's "point system," by
which the various sizes of type were designated
by mathematical proportions instead of by the
[ 188]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

more romantic but less practical arbitrary names
of " Cicero," " Gaillarde," or " Saint-Augus-
tin "j he improved upon Baskerville's hot-pressed
paper in his papier velin de France, made in the
Johannot mill at Annonay; he designed and had
cut by Waflard the famous Didot type, to which
reference has already been made. The best known
of Frangois Ambroise's editions are perhaps the
Greek Longus (1778), Tasso's Gerusalemme
liberata (1784—86), and the Homer of 1787—
1788. His texts were famous for their accuracy.
In 1783, Frangois Ambroise was commissioned by
Louis xiv to print a specially prepared edition
of those volumes which were to be used for the
education of the Dauphin.

Benjamin Franklin visited the printing office of
Frangois Ambroise in 1780. It is related that while
there the American Ambassador to France ap-
proached one of the presses, and struck off several
impressions from the type with such workman-
like proficiency as to cause astonishment. " Don't
be surprised," Franklin said in response to the ex-
pression which came on the faces of those about
him — " this is my real trade."

So impressed was Franklin with the personality
and accomplishments of Frangois Ambroise, that
in 1785 he placed his grandson, Benjamin Frank-
lin Bache, with him as an apprentice. The notes that

[ 189]master makers of the book.

the boy made in his diary give an idea of the esteem
in which Frangois Ambroise was held at that time:
" My grandpapa," the boy writes, " has prevailed
upon Mr. Didot, the best printer of this age and
even the best that has ever been seen, to consent
to take me into his house for some time in order to
teach me his art. I take my meals at his house and
sleep at the house of Mrs. Le Roy, a friend of my
grandpapa} I went thither today with my cousin,
and I became acquainted with his family and some-
thing more. He combines in his house engraving,
the forge, the foundry, and the printing office} it
is a very amiable family, as it seems to me} the
meals are frugal."

Pierre Frangois Didot, brother of Frangois Am-
broise, was named Printer to the Dauphin (after-
wards Louis xviii) in 1759. He issued some splen-
did editions, — notably the Imitation of 1788, and
the folio Telemaque, — but his real contribution
was the establishment of a paper mill at Essonne.
From this beginning, the Didots became the most
famous paper makers in France.

Although the Didots were printing in France
during all the period of Baskerville's achievements
in England, at the time when the Birmingham
printer became famous the early Didot volumes
were not in keeping with the flowery taste that pre-
vailed before the Revolution, and thus attracted
[ 190]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

less attention than they deserved. These French-
men, however, possessed the foresight to appreci-
ate what Baskerville's contribution to the Book
really meant, and to realize that the opportunity
would surely come for them to bring to France a
return of that glory which the fitiennes had earlier
contributed. Fortunately for the art of printing
they possessed the ability to make their vision
practical.

The two later Didots who came particularly into
the picture were both sons of Frangois Ambroise —
Pierre Paine (1761-1853), so called to distinguish
him from his less famous uncle, and Firmin
(1764-1836). Pierre represented the publishing
interest of the House of Didot, while Firmin was
the practical genius who still further improved
upon the type his father had designed, invented
the epoch-making process of stereotyping, and
made several scholarly translations.

In 1830 Firmin was offered the directorship of
the Imprimerie Royale, which he declined because
the Government would not agree to his conditions
that competition with the printers of Paris be dis-
continued, and that its productions be made ex-
amples of printing as an art. He was not content
to consider the Royal printing office merely as a
glorified manufacturing establishment, but insisted
that it be placed upon the same artistic basis as

[ 191 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

the institutions of Gobelins and of Sevres. He
served several years in the French Chamber of
Deputies j he was decorated with the ribbon of the
Legion of Honor j and his work was awarded gold
medals wherever exhibited. After Firmin's death,
the French Government placed his bust in one of
the rooms of the Imprimerie Royale, his portrait
hangs in the Museum at Versailles and at the
Louvre. Here, at least, was a prophet who received
honor in his own country.

The contributions of the Didots to the Book
were mounting up. Their type carried the formal
design of the Baskerville letters to its extremest
point, and each character was cut with such abso-
lute precision that the letters seemed the product
of an engraver's tools. The experiments made in
the vellum paper by Francois Ambroise at An-
nonay resulted in the manufacture of the most
beautiful sheets of hand-made paper that could
be produced. Baskerville's superb ink was dupli-
cated j alliances were made with the most famous
artists of the day for illustrations — to be splen-
didly engraved upon copper j improvements were
made in the presses, and the presswork of the Di-
dots — where the type just bit into the paper
enough to become a part of it — astonished the
world. With the publication of the famous Louvre
editions by Pierre I'aine and Firmin — so called
[ 192 ]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

because the Government, recognizing their efforts
to emulate the achievements of the fetiennes,
granted the Didots those quarters in the Louvre
which were formerly occupied by the Imprimerie
Royale — the Didots became supreme in the art
of printing, a position which was made still more
secure by the publication of their magnificent Ra-
cine in 1801. This was pronounced " the most
perfect typographical production of any country
and of all the ages."

That the Didots realized the importance of
practical knowledge is shown by this quotation from
a statement made by Pierre I'aine: " A master
printer must be familiar with the mechanical proc-
esses if he is to apply them effectively to his art.
Thus he must have performed the manual labors
of his workmen in order to direct them properly
and secure the best results. I am particularly im-
pressed with this necessity, even at my age and
with my experience, when I see my father still
striving to perfect himself."

Frey has left us a graphic description of the
precautions taken by Pierre I'aine to secure accuracy
in his texts: "Our celebrated printer," he says,
" shuts himself up in a room apart from noise and
interruption. There, surrounded by an extensive
library, he reads aloud, in a clear voice, speaking
very slowly, so that he may be able to scrutinize

[ i93 ]master makers of the book.

the letters one by one, his daughter attentively
following the copy. . . Then he has a second
proof read by one of our good grammarians. The
press revise is compared and re-read with great
care. Then, after the edition has been run off, the
sheets are again re-read by two persons . . . im-
portant errors being corrected by printing cancels."

Pierre I'aine was decorated by Napoleon and by
Louis xviii. At the age of seventy-three he was
given the cross of the Legion of Honor. He retired
from business in 1819.

By 1825 the Didot Press, under the direction
of Jules, son of Pierre I'aine, was seriously affected
by the large number of competing establishments
in Paris, and the situation was aggravated by an
incurable disease its director had contracted. In an
effort to enlarge his business horizon, Jules estab-
lished a Press in Brussels} but the results did not
justify the heavy expense. Fortunately for him,
the Belgian Government eventually purchased the
plant, and made of it the foundation of their Royal
printing office.

In the fourth generation, two of Firmin Didot's
sons upheld the traditions of the family —■ Hya-
cinthe (1794-1880) and Ambroise Firmin (1790-
1876). The latter was one of the significant figures
of the Book during the nineteenth century. Brought
up under the personal and sympathetic guidance of
[194]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

his accomplished father, he came in contact at an
early age with the famous contemporaries of Fir-
min, giving him a wide knowledge of the world
which added to the position his talents would have
won for him. His early association with the Didot
Press was in the mechanical end, during which
period he introduced into France the famous Eng-
lish Stanhope press — the forerunner of the power
press which was to supersede the hand press. Am-
broise Firmin demonstrated his inheritance as a
type designer by cutting the " English cursive "
— a face which attracted universal attention. As
a publisher, Ambroise Firmin increased the reputa-
tion of the House by issuing several important
works, and he contributed to the literature of the
Book by his splendid volumes on Gutenberg
(1863), Essai sur Vhistoire de la gravure sur
bois (1863) and Aide Manuce et Vhellenisme a
Venise (1875). He was one of the greatest book
collectors of his time, leaving a library that was
sold, after his death, for the then enormous sum
of $600,000. Ambroise Firmin was an officer of
the Legion of Honor, and in 18 55 succeeded his
father as Printer to the Institute of France.

Of Pierre Frangois' sons, Henri (1765—1852)
produced a microscopic type that attracted much
attention, and St. Leger (1767-1829) was the first
to make paper in an endless roll. This innovation

[i95]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

caused a complete revolution in paper making,
and proved most far-reaching in the evolution of
printing.

By 1840 the affairs of the Didot Press, with
more than a thousand employees in its various
departments, had reached proportions beyond the
ability of the family to conduct, so it was decided
to turn the bookstore, the printing office, the stereo-
type foundry, the paper mills, and the ink factory
over to an incorporated company. This became
known as the Societe de la fonderie generate. As
an inevitable result, the quality of the workman-
ship suffered, while the business of manufacturing
and publishing prospered. The later Didots became
more interested in the business than in the artistic
development.

During this same period Bodoni was producing
volumes in Italy. Giambattista was the son of a
printer, and was born in the Piedmontese town of
Saluzzo on February 16, 1740. He served his
apprenticeship in Rome, having peculiarly intimate
and agreeable relations with his master Ruggeri,
the director of the Press of the Propaganda Office.
So deep was the boy's affection for Ruggeri that
when the older man committed suicide the youth
found further work at Rome intolerable. He gave
up his position and started on his way to England
[ 196 ]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

to seek his fortune. While visiting his parents at
Saluzzo, he became the victim of a serious illness,
and his enforced sojourn there gave Duke Ferdi-
nand of Parma an opportunity to invite the youth-
ful printer, then twenty-eight years of age, to be-
come the head of the Stamperia Reale, at Parma.
This was really a private printing establishment,
producing Court documents or volumes of par-
ticular interest to its patron, Duke Ferdinand.

Bodoni accepted the offer, equipped himself
with French types made by Fournier in Paris, and
supplemented them by types of his own design.
At first these were flatly based upon the French
models, but gradually he felt the influence of
Baskerville, and the demand for the formal types
called for by the popularity of Graeco-Roman art.
By degrees the Bodoni letter assumed the same
refined classical tendency that expressed itself in
the characters designed by Firmin Didotj in fact,
the similarity between these two type faces is so
marked as to suggest a possibility that the designs
might have been made in collaboration.

By 1788 the Bodoni printing office in Parma had
become celebrated. In 1775 Giambattista had
printed the Efithalamia in twenty-five languages,
in honor of the marriage of the Prince of Pied-
mont with Princess Clotilde of France, which had
attracted world-wide attention. Visitors to Parma

[ i97 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK.

considered their experiences incomplete without a
visit to his workshop. Arthur Young, writing in
December, 1789, records the fact that he went " to
the celebrated reale typografica of Signore Bodoni,
who shewed me many works of singular beauty.
The types, I think, excel those of Didot at Paris,
who likewise often crowds the letters close, as if
to save paper. The Daphne and Chloe and the
Amynta are beautifully executed} I bought the
latter as a specimen of this celebrated Press, which
really does honour to Italy. Signore Bodoni had
the title of the printer to the king of Spain, but
never received any salary, or even gratification, as
I learned in Parma from another quarter; where I
was also informed that the salary he has from the
duke is only 150 zechins. His merit is great and
distinguished, and his exertions are uncommon.
He has 30,000 matrices of type. I was not a little
pleased to find that he has met with the best sort
of patron in Mr. Edward, the bookseller, at Lon-
don, who has made a contract with him for an
impression of two hundred and fifty of four Greek
works, four Latin, and four Italian ones."

So famous had Bodoni become by 1790 that he
was invited to start a Press at the Papal Court in
Rome, but Duke Ferdinand would not consider
the loss of so brilliant an ornament to Parma and
to Piedmont. He provided additional resources for'
[198]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

the enlargement of Bodoni's horizon — a larger
plant, moneys for further experimenting, and ab-
solute freedom of action on the part of the printer.
Up to this time Bodoni's volumes had been printed
in Latin, Greek, or Italian} now he branched forth
into French, German, Russian, and English. He
was overwhelmed with honors: Carlos in of Spain
made him Royal Printer, Carlos iv granted him a
pension, as did also Napoleon Bonaparte and the
Viceroy of India j special medals were struck off
in his honor by the cities of Parma and of Paris.
Benjamin Franklin, always interested in every-
thing that went toward the advancement of the
art of printing, corresponded with him, and en-
couraged him in his efforts. Bodoni died in Parma
on November 30, 1813, and his funeral obsequies
rivaled in magnificence those of a passing prince.
His types and ornaments, together with a complete
set of his publications, are still preserved in the
Ducal Library at Parma.

The formality of Bodoni's volumes may be ex-
plained by the fact that he never looked upon him-
self as a printer to the people. He had received
the plaudits of the great, and he catered to the
tastes of the few. By this time there were books
and to spare for the multitude, and the cheap, com-
monplace editions placed practically every author
within the reach of the lean purse. There was no

[ 199]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

call for the humanism that had entered into the
purpose of Aldus Manutius and of Robert Etienne.
Bodoni undertook to serve those who appreciated
fine paper, careful typography, and skilful press-
work, and possessed the means to pay for the cost
which this luxury entailed. The Graeco-Roman
art was still fashionable, and the patrons upon
whom Bodoni depended went into ecstasies over
the thick heavy-strokes and the alternating light-
strokes of his letters, the sumptuous margins, and
the return to the folio and quarto sizes of three
centuries earlier.

While Pierre I'aine and Firmin Didot were
making their name famous in France, and Bodoni
was establishing his reputation in Italy, Joachim
Ibarra in Madrid produced his Sallust of 1772.
This Spanish printer, who was born in Saragossa in
1725, at once became recognized all over Europe
as a worthy competitor of his French and Italian
rivals. Of his Don Quixote, Ibarra's finest ex-
ample, the Chevalier de Bourgoing writes, in 1782,
that it is " equally admirable for the quality of the
ink, the beauty of the paper, the clearness of the
character, and (is) to be compared with the finest
productions of the kind in any other nation. . .
Every connoisseur is acquainted with, and prefers
to the edition of Baskerville, the Sallust . . .

[ 200 ]d i do t j bodoni, ibarra

and other works from the presses of Ibarra at
Madrid, . . which are masterpieces of the typo-
graphical art, and will one day be sought after
by posterity, as we now search for Elzevirs."

Ibarra also attracted the attention of Benjamin
Franklin, who wrote: " A strong Emulation exists
at Present between Paris and Madrid, with regard
to beautiful printing. Here a M. Didot le jeune
has a passion for the Art. . . He has executed
several charming Editions. But the Sallust and the
Don Quixote of Madrid are thought to excel
them." Nee de la Rochelle declares that " Ibarra
carried the perfection of his art to a point until
then unknown in Spain, and the emulation he in-
spired in his confreres caused greater advances in
Typographic Art in twenty years than it had made
in the two preceding centuries. He is distinguished
for his magnificent editions, in which sumptuous
engravings are combined with sumptuous types,
great accuracy, and superior presswork."

Ibarra was more than a printer. His experiments
in ink produced the highest quality ever used in
Spain, and he invented a machine to hot-press
sheets of paper such as Baskerville had so labori-
ously prepared by means of his japanned plates.
Ibarra was appointed Court Printer to Carlos hi,
thus sharing Royal honors with Bodoni. He died in
Madrid on November 23, 1785.

[ 201 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

That all three of these printers were directly
influenced by the work of John Baskerville is un-
questioned, but it is more difficult to determine the
relative influence that each of the three exerted on
the other two. Ibarra undoubtedly received more
than he gave. The intimate relations between the
Spanish Court and Bodoni placed Ibarra in close
touch with everything his Italian rival produced.
■But was Bodoni the Italian Didot, or was Didot
the French Bodoni? The Italian undoubtedly pos-
sessed far more originality than either of his rivals,
but the others were much more accurate in their
texts. Firmin Didot himself, always a generous
critic, says of Bodoni, " As a lover of literature, I
condemn his editions j as a typographer, I admire
them."

But it is really of slight importance which pre-
ceded or outranked the other two. The main fact
is that all three, working separately at the same
time in different countries, impelled by the same
influence to greater effort in printing as an art,
gave the best there was in them to the common
cause of the Book, and by their combined efforts
established it upon a modern basis. That these ef-
forts were not sufficient to hold the art at the high
point to which they lifted it cannot be considered
their responsibility. The public they reached had
not yet established its own basis, being unduly
[ 202 ]DIDOT, BODONI, IBARRA

influenced by conditions and circumstances that
possessed no abiding principles. Who shall say that
it was not a good thing for the Book to be shaken
from its complacency in the old-style basis, even
though the modern school failed to demonstrate
its ability to supply something better? Out of the
comparison each school learned much that was
to its advantage, and discovered how jointly to
contribute to the understanding which was to
create modern volumes based upon the best of each.

[ 203 ]VIII WILLIAM MORRIS

The zArt of Printing Qornes 'Sack into Its OwnVIII • WILLIAM MORRIS

The <:Art of Printing Qomes Hack into Its Own

For half a century after the French Revolution
the modern types, introduced by Didot, Bodoni,
and Ibarra, held their popularity, and many type
foundries, convinced that the old-style faces would
never again be called for, even destroyed their
punches and matrices. Had these prophets held
true visions the outlook for the future of the Book
would have been even more dismal than it then
appeared. The formal modern characters had been
all very well when employed by real masters in
the art of printing} but they offered a sorry spec-
tacle during the first half of the nineteenth century
in the volumes produced by incompetent printers.

The one bright spot in this drab period in the
history of the Book is the work which Charles
Whittingham the younger produced at the Chis-
wick Press in London — particularly for William
Pickering, the famous English publisher of his
time, whose device was a revival of the old Dol-
phin and Anchor first used by Aldus. Pickering
was undoubtedly the inspiration for Whittingj-

[ 207 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

ham's work, but the latter fortunately possessed
sufficient vision and typographic ability to carry
out the publisher's ideas with success.

Whittingham is entitled to the credit for having
revived the use of old-style type. In 1844, he had
the courage to insist that while the modern face
approached the brilliancy of an engraved letter
and offered definite advantages in the condensed
space it occupied, the design could not in any way
be compared, so far as beauty was concerned, with
that of the old-style letters cut by Caslon. About
that time the Longmans, in London, turned over
the Diary of Lady Willoughhy to Whittingham
for manufacture. Whittingham persuaded the
publishers that the old-style type would produce
a far handsomer volume than the modern, and this
small quarto was brought out at the Chiswick Press
as a demonstration of Whittingham's claims. The
result was an almost immediate return on the part
of booklovers to their former preference for the
old-style designs in all volumes except in those
intended for a merely utilitarian purpose, such as
school books and the like.

During this first half of the nineteenth century
still another influence was definitely at work to
prepare the world for the renaissance of printing
which William Morris was to create at the Kelms-
cott Press during the last decade of the century.

[ 208 ]WILLIAM MORRIS

This was a spirit of definite esthetic discontent,
scarcely appreciated at first, but steadily growing
until the revolt became strong enough to make
itself felt. John Ruskin was the leading spirit of
this revolt.

Among those most deeply affected was William
Morris, who, even as a young man, determined to
make his life a protest against existing conditions.
He felt keenly the contrast between the beauty
in nature and the ugliness in the products of human
labor. He made no secret of the fact that what he
really aimed at was nothing less than the remaking
of society, as this seemed to him the only way his
ideal could ever be attained. He sought to express
his passion for beauty in various ways: by writing
poetryj by illuminating volumes handwritten by
himself j by translations of the Icelandic sagas as
well as of the Odyssey and the Aeneid; by design-
ing wall papers, chintzes, carpets, and other house-
hold things in an attempt to revive their ancient
beauty. He experimented in no less than twenty
different crafts. At last, in 1890, Morris turned
to the printed Book as yet another medium for
conveying his artistic ideals to the world. At that
time he was fifty-six years old. This was not a
new idea. Nearly twenty years earlier he had made
desultory typographical experiments, but they had
not brought him satisfaction.

[ 209 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Morris was born on March 24, 1834, in Wal-
thamstow, Essex, England. His father was a
wealthy London bill broker, who died just before
the son attained his twenty-first birthday, leaving
Morris more or less his own master with an income
that made it possible to gratify most of his desires.
William Morris never attached much importance
to what he called his " schooling," although Marl-
borough School, and Exeter College at Oxford,
are perhaps entitled to more credit for his educa-
tion than he ever gave them. He himself would
have claimed that the greatest benefit he received
at Oxford was the friendship he formed with Ed-
ward Burne-Jones.

During his second year at Oxford, he made a
vacation trip through some of the cathedral cities
of northern France. In 1855 he repeated this
journey with the result that he became so deeply
affected by the Gothic masterpieces that he deter-
mined to take up architecture as a profession.:
These trips were planned partly because the youth-
ful Morris 'had become fired with enthusiasm from
reading the chapter " On the Nature of Gothic "
in Ruskin's Stones of Venice. When, years later,
Morris reprinted this chapter at the Kelmscott
Press, he added a preface in which he attributes to
Ruskin's ideas a profound influence upon the be-
liefs that dominated his entire life.

[ 210]WILLIAM MORRIS

In 1856 he articled himself to George Edmund
Street, a famous architect of that period} but the
youth's visions were far too broad to be satisfied
for any length of time with any single line of hu-
man endeavor. While still an undergraduate at
Oxford he had begun to write poetry, and now,
while laboriously studying the fundamentals of
architecture in Street's office, he gratified his per-
sonal cravings by writing poems which were in-
cluded in a volume entitled The Defence of Guen-
evere, published in 1858 when the author was but
twenty-four years of age.

Morris developed no particular interest in de-
signing English mansions or public buildings,
stately though they might be. What he really
wanted to do was to reform English taste, and to
force people to furnish and decorate their homes
with things that were beautiful instead of ugly.
Such men as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox
Brown, Philip Webb, and Sir Edward Burne-
Jones were fellow-enthusiasts in this esthetic
movement, and were of no little assistance in
bringing about the realization of some of the vis-
ions that they shared with him.

By 1867 William Morris was already recog-
nized as a poet of distinction. Chaucer was his
master, and The Life and Death of Jason and
The Earthly Paradise are the direct results of his

[ 2" ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

influence. Morris* real popularity as a writer came
with the publication of The Life and "Death of
Jason, and its immediate and unqualified success
was a heartening gratification to him in spite of
his typical indifference to criticism. To Morris
himself, his Sigurd the Vol sung, published in
1876, was his greatest literary achievement, not
because he believed this work to represent higher
excellence in craftmanship, but because in his judg-
ment the story itself was the greatest in the world.
" This is the Great Story of the North," he wrote,
" which should be to all our race what the Tale of
Troy was to the Greeks."

Then, from 1878 to 1890, the poet became re-
former, and he sought to accomplish his ideals
through the medium of socialism. There was no
thought of anarchy in Morris' socialism, but, as
an essential part of reforming society, Art was to
introduce Beauty. " Society," he wrote in 1896,
" at present is organized entirely for the benefit
of a privileged class j the working class being
only considered in the arrangement as so much
machinery. This involves perpetual and enormous
waste, and the organization for the production of
genuine utilities is only a secondary consideration.
This waste lands the whole civilized world in a
position of artificial poverty, which again debars
men of all classes from satisfying their rational
[ 212 ]WILLIAM MORRIS

desires. Rich men are in slavery to Philistinism,
poor men to penury. We can none of us have what
we want, except (partially only) by making prodi-
gious sacrifices, which very few men can ever do.
Before, therefore, we can so much as hope for any
art, we must be free from this artificial poverty.
When we are thus free, in my opinion, the natural
instincts of mankind toward beauty and incident
will take their due place: we shall want art, and
since we shall be really wealthy, we shall be able to
have what we want."

Morris founded the Socialist League in 1884,
but by 1890 he discovered that a large number of
the members were bent toward anarchy, so he
withdrew. Just as he had failed to find a satisfying
medium to express his ideals in any single craft,
so now, although still believing in his own concep-
tion of socialism, he was forced to seek another
experiment — and this led him again into the
realm of the making of books. The earlier, un-
satisfactory experiments in typography were now
to find complete and gratifying expression.

To Emery Walker belongs the credit not only
of seriously interesting the future Master of the
Kelmscott Press to associate himself with the ac-
tual production of printed volumes, but also for
generously contributing his own practical knowl-
edge in guiding and cooperating with Morris dur-

[ 213 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

ing the vital years in which the Kelmscott volumes
were produced. Walker was a neighbor of Morris'
at Hammersmith, and, as the intimacy between the
two men developed, the early printed books Mor-
ris had collected, mainly through his interest in
the woodcuts, took on a new significance.

It so happened that the printing of Morris'
House of the Wolfings was j ust then (18 8 8 ) being
contemplated at the Chiswick Press. The author
was consulted as to the type he preferred to have
used. At the Press Morris discovered a discarded
font, cut fifty years before as an experiment, based
upon an early Basle face. With Emery Walker
beside him as consultant and guide, Morris settled
upon this face for The House of the Wolfings,
and he also used it in his Roots of the Mountains,
which shortly followed. This latter book was the
most distinguished typographically of any Morris
volume published up to this time, and Morris him-
self declared it to be " the best looking book issued
since the seventeenth century."

The success of this direct association with the
making of books decided Morris to become a
printer. As a first step, he determined to design a
type which should express his ideals. His hobby
of collecting ancient volumes received a fresh im-
petus. He now added to his medieval books ex-
amples of the best work of the early printers —
[214]WILLIAM MORRIS

such as Lorenzo of Arezzo's History of Florencey
printed by Jacobus de Rubeis in Venice in 1476,
and Jenson's Pliny of the same year — so that he
might study the methods and principles employed
in their type design. While his admiration for the
handlettering of the medieval scribes had created
an early and a lasting preference for the Gothic
model, Morris was much impressed by the
beauty which the fifteenth-century printers secured
through the simple means of splendidly designed
Roman type, without decoration, carefully com-
posed and properly placed upon the paper leaf.

It was natural that he should select the Jenson
model, as the letters of this Venetian printer were
quite the best of their period. For the first time in
translating written characters into metal, the de-
signer had reproduced them not as the scribe actu-
ally wrote them, but as he intended to write them.

Morris had the Jenson volume, and some pages
from that printed by Rubeis, photographed on a
large scale, from which enlargements he studied
the characteristics with minutest care. When he
felt that he had mastered the principles upon which
type designing rested, and was competent to sep-
arate the merits of the early types from their de-
fects, he produced his first font of letters. A com-
parison of these characters with those of the Jenson
model discloses the interesting fact that, in spite

[ 21S 1MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

of what Morris set himself to do, he could not
break away from his Gothic tendencies. This was
his famous " Golden " type, so called because he
originally intended to make Caxton's translation
of The Golden Legend the first book in which it
would be used. Through an accident this plan had
to be changed: it so happened that the hand-made
paper with which Morris had provided himself
was of such size that -only two pages of The Golden
Legend could have been printed at one time; so
Morris' own Story of the Glittering Plain, a small
quarto, was substituted.

Pleased as he was with the results of his first ex-
periments as a type designer, Morris still felt the
urge to produce a font which should be wholly
Gothic. The Gothic design adopted in the very
earliest fonts gave way in favor of the Roman
characters because of the difficulty it offered to
readers. Morris undertook to produce a Gothic
type which should embrace all its characteristics,
and still be readable.

He took for his models pages printed by
Schoeffer at Mayence, Mentelin at Strassburg, and
Gunther Zainer at Augsburg. He studied these
just as he had his Italian models, and did away
with what he called the "spiky ends and undue
compression," which he felt produced the illegi-
bility. This Morris called " Troy," and it was his
[ 216]WILLIAM MORRIS

favorite type. It was first cut in Great Primer size,
but when this proved too large for a double-
column book, such as the Chaucer, he had it recut
in Pica size, and called it the " Chaucer " type.

With the types provided for, Morris undertook
to design the initials, borders, and ornaments. At
first these designs showed the influence of the
Italian manuscripts of the fifteenth century j but
by the time Morris' Troy type was completed his
sympathies had passed away from the Italian to
the German. These early designs appeared in
Poems by the Way, written by Morris, and printed
at the Kelmscott Press. Morris also designed new
initials, borders, and ornaments to harmonize with
•the heavier face of the new Troy letter.

The prodigious industry of the man is shown by
the unbelievable number of designs he personally
made while carrying on his own shoulders such a
multitude of details accumulating from so many
varied interests. There were 384 initial letters, 57
borders, 108 marginal ornaments, 26 frames for
pictures, 28 title pages and inscriptions, 33 initial
words, to say nothing of line endings and printer's
marks, aggregating not less than 644 designs drawn
and engraved within the period of seven years.

All these wood blocks are now in the British
Museum, placed there in 1898 on the condition
that they should not be reproduced or printed from

[217 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

for a century. The type itself remains in the hands
of the Morris Trustees who, since the closing of
the Kelmscott Press, have only permitted its use
in printing certain of Morris' works, or in special
editions of which they believed Morris would hkve
approved. The decorations themselves have never
been printed with authorization in any but those
books issued by William Morris himself.

As one might expect from a man who ap-
proached the art of printing with such infinite
respect for detail, Morris took into careful con-
sideration the spacing between the words and the
leading between the lines. He abhorred white spots
in the type page. In his own writings, he recast
sentences to make them fill out the lines j in print-
ing the writings of others, where such liberties
could not be taken, he employed a leaf floret —
a questionable expedient in the minds of some,
who feel that the repetition of these spots of deco-
ration form a blemish in an otherwise perfect page.
The same fondness for massing the black of the
printed page induced him to employ little or no
leading between the lines. His type faces were so
designed as to occupy the entire body. He used a
thin lead with his Troy type, a " hair " lead with
his Chaucer face, but set the type solid in his six-
teen-mo volumes.

In making his margins, Morris properly insisted
[ 218 ]WILLIAM MORRIS

upon considering the two facing pages as a unit.
The fact that the placing of the type upon the
paper leaf of the Kelmscott volumes so closely
follows the precedent set by the early printers
is one explanation of their satisfying beauty.

Morris went as thoroughly into the matter of
his hand-made paper as he did into all of the
other details which entered into the making of his
books. The first paper supplied was 16 x 11 inches,
and contained a conventional Primrose between the
initials W. M. as water mark. Later, a somewhat
larger and stronger paper was used, of similar ma-
terial, having as water mark a Perch holding a
spray in its mouth. A third size of this same paper
had as water mark an Apple with the initials W. M.
Morris was insistent that the wire marks in his
laid paper " must not be too strong, so as to give
a ribbed appearance." To secure the effect he had
in mind, the wire molds were woven by hand, to
reproduce the slight irregularity seen in the texture
of those papers used by the early printers.

The skins on which his vellum copies are printed
were at first secured from Rome, but when it be-
came impossible to obtain a further supply, owing
to the heavy demands made by the Vatican, Morris
turned to English manufacturers. Because of the
oily nature of the vellum, which makes presswork
difficult, the scheme was devised of having the sur-

[ 219 1MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

face artificially filled in with chalk, which pre-
sented a perfect printing surface. In the minds of
some experts a doubt has been raised as to the per-
manency of this artificial surface. There are only
three complete vellum sets of the Kelmscott books
known to exist. Morris planned to manufacture his
own ink, but this intention was never carried out.

All the presswork was done upon hand presses,
under the supervision of Emery Walker, whose
practical knowledge of printing assisted William
Morris successfully to translate his ideals into
terms of type and paper. As early as 1889 Walker
had been asked to be a partner in the Kelmscott
Press, and although he did not accept that actual
relation, he was so closely associated with Morris
throughout the entire life of the Press that no
important step was taken without his advice and
approval. In fact, Morris' earliest plan was to have
his volumes put into type in Hammersmith, and
then printed in Walker's office in Clifford's Inn.

The early publications of the Kelmscott Press
were issued and sold through London publishers.
Reeves and Turner, for instance, distributed The
Glittering Plain (1891), Poems by the Way
(1891), Love Lyrics and Songs of Proteus (1892),
The Defence of Guenevere (1892), A Dream of
John Bull (1892), The Poems of William Shake-
speare (1893), News from Nowhere (1893), The
[ 220 ]WILLIAM MORRIS

Order of Chivalry (1892) and U Or dene de Che-
valerie (1893), and The Life of Thomas Wolsey
(1893)5 George Allen published The Nature of
Gothic (1892)5 while Bernard Quaritch issued
The Golden Legend (1892), The Recuyell of the
Historyes of Troye (1892), and The History of
Reynard the Fox (1893). After the appearance of
this last volume, Morris decided to act as publisher
as well as printer of the Kelmscott volumes.
" There is really no risk in it," he remarked. " I
shall get more money, and the public will have to
pay less." The issue of The History of Godefrey
of Boloyne (1893) bore the imprint, " Published
by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press," and
marked the end of the divided responsibility of
printer and publisher.

William Morris believed that there were
enough booklovers who had sufficient appreciation
of art in printing to pay the higher prices which
were necessary to secure the beauty and excellence
of quality in the Kelmscott volumes, and he was
not disappointed. While he never expected to make
of the Kelmscott Press a commercial success, yet
the income showed sufficient profit to enable him
to spare no expense in expressing his ideal concep-
tions in the production of his books.

The Kelmscott Press began active operation
in 1891, in a cottage at 16 Upper Mall, Haramer-

[ 221 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

smith, London, only a step from William Morris'
home. Four months later, larger quarters were
secured at 14 Upper Mall, to which, in 1894, num-
ber 21 Upper Mall was added. Here, during the
seven years of its existence, were printed fifty-two
works comprising sixty-six volumes. The composi-
tion and the presswork were done on the premises j
the binding, in vellum and half-holland, was the
work of an outside firm.

The masterpiece of the Kelmscott Press was the
Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, which was begun in
1892 and required five years for its completion.
The actual printing occupied a little less than two
years. At first Morris planned to print this in the
Troy face, but the trial pages demonstrated that
the type was of too large a size for a double-
column book. The Troy designs were therefore
recut in smaller size, and called " Chaucer." Mor-
ris secured the cooperation of Sir Edward Burne-
Jones as illustrator, and he himself undertook the
task of designing the initial letters, borders, and
decorations.

One delay followed another until Morris be-
came fearful that the project might never be com-
pleted, particularly as by this time his health was
seriously impaired. He finished the decoration for
the first page in March, 1893. He was entirely
satisfied with it, exclaiming," My eyes! How good
[ 222 ]WILLIAM MORRIS

it is! " During this same period he devoted himself
to his metrical version of Beowulf.

In the meantime, Burne-Jones was experiencing
great difficulty in having his designs satisfactorily
rendered upon wood, and Morris dolefully re-
marked, after comparing notes with his friend and
collaborator, " We shall be twenty years at this
rate in getting it out."

By June, 1894, the great work was fairly begun.
" Chaucer getting on well," Morris notes in his
diary j " such lovely designs "; and at the end of
June he records that he hopes to begin the actual
printing within a month, and that in about three
months more all the pictures and nearly all the
borders would be ready for the whole of the
Canterbury Tales.

In May, 1895, he discovered that many of the
sheets of the Chaucer had become discolored by
some unfortunate ingredient of the ink, but, to his
immense relief, he succeeded in removing the yel-
low stain by bleaching: " The check of the Chau-
cer" he writes, " flattens life for me somewhat}
but I am going hard into the matter, and in about
a fortnight hope to know the worst of it."

In December, 1895, the Chaucer was sufficiently
near completion to encourage him to design a bind-
ing for it. Even here he found another difficulty:
" Leather is not good now," he said. " What used

[ 223 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

to take nine months to cure is now done in three.
They used to say,1 What's longest in the tanyard
stays least time in the market,' but that no longer
holds good. People don't know how to buy now;
they'll take anything."

Morris' anxiety for the Chaucer increased as it
came near to completion: " I'd like it finished to-
morrow," he answered an inquirer. " Every day
beyond tomorrow that it isn't done is one too
many." To a visitor in his library, looking through
the printed sheets, who remarked upon the added
beauty of those which followed the Canterbury
Tales, where the picture pages face one another in
pairs, Morris exclaimed in alarm, " Now don't
you go saying that to Burne-Jones or he'll be want-
ing to do the first part over again; and the worst
of that would be, that he would want to do all the
rest over again, because the other would be so much
better, and then we should never get done, but
always be going round and round in a circle."

The daily progress of the work upon the Chau-
cer was the one interest that sustained his waning
energies. The last three blocks were brought to
him on March 21, 1896. The Easter holidays al-
most killed him: " Four mouldy Sundays in a
mouldy row," he writes in his diary; " the Press
shut, and Chaucer at a standstill."

On May 6, 1896, all the picture sheets were
[ 224]WILLIAM MORRIS

printed, and the block for the title page was sub-
mitted for his approval, the final printing being
completed two days later. On June 2, the first two
bound copies were delivered to him, one of which
he immediately sent to Burne-Jones. His own copy
is now in the library of Exeter College, Oxford.

This was William Morris' swan song, his death
occurring October 3, 1896. Among those friends
closest to him during his last days were Sir Ed-
ward and Lady Burne-Jones, and Emery Walker.

The personal appearance of William Morris was
as striking and unusual as was his work. J. W.
Mackail, in his Life of William Morris, draws a
vivid picture of the man." In his suit of blue serge
and soft felt hat," Mackail writes, " he had some-
thing of the look of a working engineer and some-
thing of that of a sailor. He was walking down
Kensington High Street one morning when a fire-
man from the brigade station stopped him and said,
' Beg pardon, sir, but were you ever captain of the
Sea Swallow?' Indeed, a stranger might very well,
not only from his clothing but from his rocking
walk and ruddy complexion, have taken him for a
Baltic sea captain. In those days he had not yet
adopted the blue cotton shirts which, in later years,
became his invariable dress and almost of the es-
sence of his appearance. The capacity for produc-
ing and annexing dirt, noted by Rossetti, remained

[225 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

strong in him 5 and when he began to add dyeing to
other handicrafts which he practised, appearances
were completely given up. After he ceased to live
at Queen Square in 1872, he very often went to
lunch at the Faulkners' house, a few doors off.
He went along, if the day were fine, without a hat
and in his French workman's blouse; and a new
housemaid of the Faulkners', when she let him in
thus dressed for the first time, went down to the
kitchen in some perplexity, describing him to the
cook as the butcher. Mr. Ellis, in the days of their
first acquaintance, was privately warned by his
confidential clerk (not to let that Mr. Morris run
up a long account.' How he looked to other people
was a matter that never entered his head, and he
never looked at himself. He had a curious dislike
of mirrors. One of the most obvious peculiarities
of his house at all times was the absence of mirrors
or looking glasses; there were none at all in any of
the living rooms, and none in his bedroom."

Another writer (M. C. Gillington) describes
Morris' personal appearance as " that of a slovenly
and unkempt magnificence. His extraordinary and
abundant hair, with its thick, strong curl 1 like
wrought metalhis massive head with its vague,
inexpressive eyes, and beautifully moulded mouth;
his fine build and height, dimly indicative of al-
most superhuman strength; his clumsy looking
[ 226 ]WILLIAM MORRIS

but exquisitely adroit hands — all these traits com-
bined to produce that £ rum and indescribable de-
portment ' which was at once the delight and)
despair of his friends."

He had a loom set up in his bedroom at which
he worked sometimes for eight or nine hours in
a day, finding it necessary to provide actual manual
labor as an outlet for his tremendous physical
energy. Anything that was medieval appealed to
him, and he tried to force his ideals upon a public
which at first was indifferent. It was his ambition
to " make the common as though it were not com-
mon." He turned from one art to another, striving
to secure from each the expression of an ideal
which the technique of the others denied him.
Thus, while he could create atmosphere in his
poems, it was through his work in textiles that he
satisfied his demand for color.

" That talk of inspiration,'-* he once said, " is
sheer nonsense. There is no such thing; it is a mere
matter of craftsmanship. If a chap can't compose
an epic poem while he is weaving tapestry, he had
better shut up — he will never do any good at all."

This was the man who brought printing back
into its own as a fine art, and in the brief space of
seven years produced examples which must always
stand as the most astounding exhibit any printer
ever produced or ever will produce. It matters

[ 227 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

little that he departed from his own creed in so
overloading his page with decoration as to add to
the illegibility of the type; it is of no particular
consequence that the Chaucer type was far better
adapted to The Golden Legend than the Golden;
it is only of passing interest that the Kelmscott
volumes as a whole are objets d*art rather than
books. The vital point is that William Morris by
his exquisite craftsmanship demonstrated to the
world that in spite of diverting modern conditions
it was still possible to make the Book a fitting
vehicle for the thought it preserved for eternity.
And, far beyond his acknowledged position as
poet and writer, William Morris' final expression
of Beauty will go down to posterity through the
physical splendor of his printed books.

This was the greatest benefaction William Mor-
ris gave the world. The high quality of our present
modern printing is due to him more than to any
other single force. His volumes were not made for
the proletariat, yet the influence of his work has
been and is today greater than that of any other
figure in the history of the Book. " My work
is, . . to bring before people's eyes the image of
the thing my heart is filled with," Morris wrote —
and in this image later builders of books have
found inspiration and encouragement for indi-
vidual expression.

[ 228 ]• COBDEN-SANDERSON AND
EMERY WALKER

Printing as an zArt made 'PracticalIX • COBDEN-SANDERSON AND
EMERY WALKER

'Printing as an iArt made Practical

William Morris was more fortunate than was
John Baskerville in that there were others com-
petent and eager to keep alive and to continue the
renaissance he had begun; and this was equally
fortunate for the history of the Book itself. The
Kelmscott volumes, as they were published, were
greatly admired but they were not wholly under-
stood. The study of the history and precedent of
the art of printing on the part of those who make
books is a practice of comparatively recent years,
and except to those familiar with the examples of
early types and decorations that chart the path of
the master artist-printers since the printed book
came into being, the Morris volumes could only
seem the apotheosis of affected eccentricity. No
wonder that even the heads of the great printing
establishments of the 1890's, to whom the words
" Jenson " and " Elzevir " meant only distinguish-
ing names for foundry types, thought the Kelms-
cott volumes the product of an abnormal brain!

[ 23i ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

Morris, in his printing, departed widely from
the splendid basic principles he laid down in writ-
ing. Books are made to be read, and anything which
tends to make the reading of books difficult, no
matter how beautiful that thing may be, has no
permanent place in the physical aspect of the book
itself. Jenson's type is simple and legible; Morris'
Golden type, for which he tells us he took the
Jenson pattern as model, is only partially legible,
and when overloaded with decoration, superb
though that decoration may be, the difficulty in
reading is that much the greater. Morris saw the
type page as a solid black mass, even inserting
floret decorations to prevent white spaces from
appearing in the line. This presented the type to
the eye in its richest form and color, but added to
the difficulty of reading.

Had printing slipped backwards after Morris,
as it did after Baskerville, the Kelmscott volumes
might always have remained as examples of an
exotic phase in the art of bookmaking, and thus
have failed in their ultimate influence. Fortu-
nately, at Morris' death, there were two men in
England, both intimately familiar with his ideals
and with his work, who were ready and well-
equipped to express what Morris considered the
basic principles of fine bookmaking more exactly
than he himself had been able to do. It has been
[ 232 ]COBDEN-SANDERSON-EMERY WALKER

through their work at the Doves Press that the
merits of the Morris books have been more fully
revealed and shown to be practical.

All through the period of the Kelmscott Press,
Thomas James Sanderson (or Cobden-Sanderson,
as he wrote it after his marriage to Anne, daughter
of Richard Cobden) had been establishing him-
self as the greatest binder in England. He was
essentially a dreamer, yet was a man possessed of
unyielding will. Like Morris, he had experimented
in many lines of human endeavor in his deter-
mined effort to find the medium which would best
convey his message to the world. He was born at
Alnwick, in Northumberland, England, on De-
cember 2, 1840. At seventeen he was apprenticed
to an engineer, but business was distasteful. He
began to study for Cambridge, with the idea of
entering the Church. At Trinity College he spent
three years studying for mathematical honors, then
gave up all idea of going into the Church and left
Cambridge, refusing honors and a degree, which
he might have had, as a protest against the com-
petitive system. The next seven or eight years were
devoted to a study of literature. He was a prodi-
gious reader, and the conflicting ideas of the deep
thinkers he absorbed seemed to produce a disturb-
ing chaos in his mind. When thirty years of age,
after trying and discarding the profession of medi-

[ 233 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

cine, he was admitted to the Bar, later abandoning
this to become a manual laborer. That he realized
the tragedy of being out of step with his fellow
men is shown by his own comment, " How big a
world we aspire to occupy in thought, and how poor
is our control over the little one given us to rule."
From his Journals one may pick out the intricate
thread of the man's life as expressed in his work,
almost smothered by the mass of socialistic and
philosophic comments that record the desperate
struggle of an earnestly striving individuality
unable to discover an adequate medium of ex-
pression.

Then came his marriage in 1882, which was the
turning point in his life. " Marriage has imposed
upon me ambition and an obligation," he wrote. In
June, 1883, the Cobden-Sandersons were calling
on the William Morrises. " I was talking with
Mrs. Morris," he records, " and saying how
anxious I was to use my hands. i Then why don't
you learn bookbinding? ' she said. 4 That would
add an art to our little community, and we would
work together.'"

Two days later he saw De Coverley, the London
binder, and made his arrangements. The Journals
contain frequent references to his progress, and a
year later to a day he wrote, " I am now the pro-
prietor of a workshop." This was at 30 Maiden
t 234]COBDEN-SANDERSON- EMERY WALKER

Lane, London, where he remained about a year,
then moving to Goodyers. Even then, at forty-
four years of age, Cobden-Sanderson's father still
questioned his ability to settle down:

" At dinner my father asked how I was getting
on at De Coverley's. I told him, and described the
processes through which a bo.ok has to be put in
binding it. I thought I saw an expression of sadness
in his face as he looked at me the while and listened
without a word. Handicraft such as I described
perhaps seemed to him far other work, and to lead
to far other, if any, fame than that which he had
dreamt for me. But I dream of other things, too,
beyond the mere beautiful binding of a book. The
heavens overarch me the while, and the stars are
in their places; and the world moves on through
all time in silence to its unknown fulfillment. In
that greater rhythm, my own still life aiming at
perfect, at silent, at beautiful workmanship, aims,
too, to find its place, to find the truer rhythm, lost,
and yet found, within the greater."

Always the dreamer, but at last finding a me-
dium through which to express his message to the
world! " Other men express their messages in dif-
ferent media " he once said to a friend — " in
stone or on canvas. I have discovered that the book
is my medium. When I bind and decorate a volume
I seem to be setting myself, like a magnetized

[ 235 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

needle or like an ancient temple, in line and all
square, not alone with my own ideal of society, but
with that orderly and rhythmical whole which is
the revelation of science and the normal of de-
veloped humanity."

It was an achievement which should prove in-
spiring to those who have felt themselves drifting,
for a man forty-four years old to discover at last
a pursuit in which he could make himself a master
and yet remain true to those same ideals that had
previously proved a liability. A few quotations
from the Journals are revealing, and however
quixotic they may seem, the fact remains that Cob-
den-Sanderson left a name which stands high
among a distinguished company of master book-
makers:

" I must not forget, in taking to the handicraft
of bookbinding, that there are higher things in the
world, higher ambitions even for me than to pro-
duce well-bound, beautifully bound books. That
handicraft is merely in the first place something
whereby to earn an honest living, and in the second
place a means which shall put me into honest and
real relations with the bulk of my fellow
men. . . I am not playing for my own hand. My
aim should be, not the survival of my own work,
or its i price in the market,' but the creation and
survival of the spirit with which I would have all
[ 236 ]CO B DEN-SAN DE RSON- EMERY WALKER

work pursued, and all beauty designed. That
should be my supreme work in life. . . Had I
it in my mind only to produce lovely things I
might have had many customers round my door.
But my mind was really far away. It had for its
Vision primarily the universe — it was that which,
in little, I sought to re-express; not itself, though
that I held to be man's function through the ages,
but in its action upon myself, its order, its aloof-
ness, its wonder, and sometimes its beauty. This
I had and have in view, and having it in view I
responded coldly to the demand for mere ' things
in themselves,' even for the Book Beautiful in
itself. Ah, the Vision — could I realize that, were
it in symbol only, and set the world to worship it!
Then the things of beauty, and of order, and of
wonder, would follow of themselves, be life's life
expression, be the worship God intended. Aiming
at the one, I have missed the other. But that other
still abides — as my life's aim.

" I have not sought in my work to satisfy the
instincts or exclusiveness of collectors, but rather
to impart that sense of order and still serenity of
beauty which is excited by the contemplation of the
universe itself, or of some of its isolated scenes —
scenes of order and beauty in themselves. This I
think is essential in all art, be the objects of its
creation great or small, the building of cities or

[ 237]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

empires, or the binding or the decoration of a book.
And though I should fail to attract the attention
of collectors, and fall with my work into oblivion,
yet will I not myself lose hope of the goal I aspired
to reach, nor of that to which I aspired to direct
mankind, but will die in the divine hope that what
I have aspired to be and to see, I shall yet see and
be — God's face, and God's worshipper, all con-
scient. . .

" I observe in people a tendency to admire and
to get into a state of enthusiasm about my bindings,
and about such work generally for its own sake. I
do not share in that admiration or enthusiasm,
and do not wish to. My binding I wish indeed to
be beautiful, but I still more wish it to be a sign
and symbol of good social work, and of the spirit
in which all work should be done. I would wish
with my own heart, and the hearts of all men, to
be filled with a high social ideal to be fulfilled in
this life, and to be the seed of a still higher fruition
in the after-life, of which otherwise we cannot even
so much as dream in this."

The establishment of the Doves Bindery, with
which Cobden-Sanderson's name will always be
inseparably associated, was accomplished on March
20, 1893, "in the little house on the Upper Mall
called' The Nook.' " With the exception of Doug-
las Cockerell, the members of the staff came from
[238 ]COBDEN-SANDERSON-EMERY WALKER

Riviere's. From that time on no book was per-
sonally bound by Cobden-Sanderson.

After William Morris' death in 1896, the idea
began to take form in Cobden-Sanderson's mind
of establishing a Press. Inasmuch as his own ex-
perience in making books was limited solely to
the binding, he felt it necessary to supplement him-
self in this projected undertaking, and it was
natural that he should approach Emery Walker
with a proposition to join him in the adventure of
making complete volumes which would express
their mutual ideals, chastened and developed by
the experiences they had both had with William
Morris. Mrs. Cobden-Sanderson stood ready to
supply the capital. Walker finally agreed to join
Cobden-Sanderson, and in 1900 the Doves Press
began to take definite form.

It is difficult to understand why Cobden-Sander-
son's name is almost always mentioned alone in
connection with the splendid volumes which were
issued as a joint product from the Doves Press
during the sixteen years of its existence. Perhaps
the explanation lies in his ability to write. Cobden-
Sanderson possessed the happy faculty of being
able to express in words an idealism as applied to
the making of books which he himself could never
have put into practical operation because of his
lack of knowledge of every process that goes into

[ 239 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

a book with the single exception of the binding;
yet in his masterful essay, The Ideal Book (1901),
he lays down the basic principles of fine bookmak-
ing with a clearness that cannot be surpassed. Cob-
den-Sanderson had never even seen a printing press
until he called at Walker's establishment one day
after their association began, for that express pur-
pose. Emery Walker, on the other hand, was a
practical printer and a skilful engraver even be-
fore he served as adviser and guide to William
Morris, and during his connection with the Kelm-
scott Press he naturally added much to his typo-
graphic stature. It was he who first introduced
William Morris to Mr. Prince, to whom Morris
refers as the cutter of his punches. It was Walker
who designed the famous Doves type, which, in
the opinion of many experts, has never been
equaled among the privately cut faces.

When Morris' library was sold, after his death,
Walker purchased the copy of Jenson's Pliny of
1476 which Morris had studied, and he used this as
the model for his new design. The merit of the
Doves type is that it adheres closely to its Jenson
model, whereas other faces based upon the same
model depart sufficiently from the pattern to lose
the peculiar charm which Walker's type retains.
Jenson, while a great typographer, was a poor
pressman, and it is difficult to find a single example
[ 240]COBDEN-SANDERSON-EMERY WALKER

in which the type is not clogged by an excess of ink.
Walker, being an engraver by trade, was able to
get beneath the surface impression and to preserve
the original design. Cobden-Sanderson did not
see this type until it was practically completed, and
the designs have always been in Emery Walker's
possession.

With a single exception, Walker selected the
compositors and all the pressmen employed at the
Doves Press. He was at the establishment daily,
personally supervising the composition and the
presswork. Cobden-Sanderson read the proofs on
all the books with the exception of the Doves Bible,
which was read by the staff of the Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.

Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker decided
at the very beginning of their association to print
all their volumes in this single type in one size,
and to omit all decorations. The Morris books had
carried woodcut capitals and borders to their high-
est possible expression, and the founders of the
Doves Press felt that any decorated volumes that
followed the Kelmscott books must be in the na-
ture of an anti-climax. The only departure from
this decision was to insert occasionally an exceed-
ingly beautiful single red capital letter, designed
by Cobden-Sanderson. These are simple, in perfect
harmony with the line of the type, and add much

[241]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

to the composite beauty of the pages on which they
appear.

Cobden-Sanderson expresses his attitude toward
the Morris books in a masterly paragraph in The
Ideal Book. " The Book Beautiful," he writes,
" is a composite thing made up of many parts and
may be made beautiful by the beauty of each of
its parts — its literary content, its material or ma-
terials, its writing or printing, its illumination or
illustration, its binding and decoration — of each
of its parts in subordination to the whole which
collectively they constitute 3 or it may be made
beautiful by the supreme beauty of one or more of
its parts, all the other parts subordinating or even
effacing themselves for the sake of this one or
more, and each one in turn being capable of play-
ing this supreme part, and each in its own peculiar
and characteristic way. On the other hand, each
contributory craft may usurp the functions of the
rest and of the whole, and growing beautiful be-
yond all bounds ruin for its own the common
cause."

The first volume issued by the Doves Press was
the Agricola of Tacitus, in January, 1901, and
this was followed at intervals by a series of beau-
tifully printed volumes, the masterpiece of which
is undoubtedly the English Bible, in five large
quarto volumes, which appeared in 1903-1905.
I 242 ]COBDEN-SANDERSON-EMERY WALKER

This work is printed throughout in one size of type
with no leads between the lines and without para-
graphs, the divisions being indicated by paragraph
marks. The only decorations employed are the
graceful initial letters, printed in red at the be-
ginning of each book — in no way interfering with
the readability of the page.

These volumes are the apotheosis of simplicity,
and the more a student of typography studies their
pages, the more he comes to understand how great
a piece of work they really are. Emery Walker and
Cobden-Sanderson had made themselves familiar
with those basic principles which had entered into
the work of their great predecessors} they had
learned that in his books each of the great master
printers had expressed his own individuality. To
this extent only did they copy: they put themselves
into the Doves Bible, and made of it in typography
and presswork, in paper, and in binding, as perfect
an expression of their own 'ideals as will be found
in the whole history of the Book.

Cobden-Sanderson paid a visit to America in
1908 and delivered lectures at Harvard Univer-
sity, in Boston, and elsewhere upon The Ideal
Book. He was a simple man, unaccustomed to be-
ing lionized as is the American habit. He found
that in America he was looked upon as the sole
genius of the Doves Press, and the idea appealed

[ 243 ]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

to him. Emery Walker at that time held a half
interest, and Cobden-Sanderson, on his return to
London, made overtures to purchase this from
him. Walker, however, was particularly interested
in his association with the Doves books, and there-
fore declined to sell. To relieve the deadlock,
a friend who was fully acquainted with all the
circumstances of the partnership, suggested that
Walker should allow Cobden-Sanderson the use
of the Doves type for the time being, and that the
sole ownership in the property should be vested in
whichever one of the partners survived the other.
This solution of the difficulty apparently proved
acceptable both to Cobden-Sanderson and to Em-
ery Walker, for the agreement was formally and
legally drawn up.

By this time Cobden-Sanderson was nearly sev-
enty years of age. The trip to America had proved
a tax upon his strength, and he decided to close
the Press. This was not so simple an undertaking
as at first appeared, and it was not until 1916, with
the publication of his Catalogue Raisonne, final
edition, that the work actually came to an end.
That this proved a severe wrench is shown by an
entry in the Journals: " I have closed my Press,
and now have no medium at hand wherein and
wherewith to express my admiration for what I
admire or for what I love. I have indeed my voice,

[ 244]COBDEN-SANDERSON- EMERY WALKER

my living self, and I have my pen. Will these
suffice? "

Then came the act which can never be under-
stood by those who knew Cobden-Sanderson —
the destruction of the Doves type. That the in-
tensity of his devotion to everything that entered
into his work was abnormal, amounting almost to
a fetish, may explain his unwillingness to have the
type used after his death, but even this cannot
reconcile the apparent disregard of his agreement
with Walker, toward whom, until their disagree-
ment, he had shown every evidence of friendship.
Walker's attitude was characteristically generous.
" I am unwilling to attribute it to the motive ap-
parent on the surface," he said, " and think that
possibly he was suffering from some form of
megalomania." The detached memoranda Cob-
den-Sanderson wrote in his Journals would seem
to bear out Walker's philosophic comment, but they
make it evident that his act was not one of impulse.
As early as 1911 Ccfbden-Sanderson wrote: "To
the bed of the river Thames, the river on whose
banks I have printed all my books, I bequeath the
Doves Press font of type — the punches, the mat-
rices, and the type in use at the time of my death 5
and may the river in its tide and flow pass over them
to and from the great sea forever and forever, or
until its tide and flow forever cease; then may they

[245]MASTER MAKERS OF THE BOOK

share the fate of all the world, and pass from
change to change forever upon the tides of time,
untouched by other use and all else."

The record of the destruction itself, in entries
beginning August 31, 19x6, and continuing to the
end, is dramatic, and clearly supports the theory
of super-obsession: "I went out at sundown to
' bequeath' a page of type to the (bed of the
river '3 but it alighted, not on the bed of the river,
but on a ledge of the far pier of the bridge. . .
Imagine my consternation, and what I had to en-
dure all that night, . . the type, the type . . .
exposed to view, hopelessly beyond my reach. . .
After a struggle I stood up indifferent. I would
let the thing go its own way. I would neither at-
tempt to rescue the type nor would I disown it if
discovered. I would take refuge in the infinitudes.
I am now on my guard, and throw only type —
clear of the bridge. . . And all night I feared
to be asked by a policeman . . . what I had got
in my box. . . The wind is still raging, the earth
still revolves . . . and in this great theatre of
events I sit up and write my adventure,i bequeath-
ing ' the Doves type to the Thames."

Cobden-Sanderson died on September 7, 192a.

The destruction of the Doves type was a great
loss to the history of the Book. Without Emery
Walker neither the Kelmscott nor the Doves Press
[ 246 ]COBDEN-SANDERSON-EMERY WALKER

volumes could have been what they are, yet book-
lovers will never know just where his contribution
begins and ends. Had the Doves Press continued
after Cobden-Sanderson's death under Emery
Walker's sole control, as it would have done had
the agreement been carried out, the books thus
produced would have answered many questions. It
is an anomaly that the name of Emery Walker,
who stands today as the Master Printer of the
World, should appear by itself on no printed vol-
ume which may be said to express his own separate
individuality and ideals.

[ 247 ]BIBLIOGRAPHY

T. F. Dibdin: The Bibliographical Decameron (1817).

A. A. Renouard: Annales de Pimprimerie des Aides (1838).

G. A. Crapelet: Robert Estienne (1839).

Charles Pieters: Annales de Pimprimerie des Elzevier (1858).

Le Roux de Lincy: Recherches sur Jean Grolier (1866).

Ambroise Firmin-Didot: Aide Manuce et PHellenisme a Venise
(i875)-

John Addington Symonds: Renaissance in Italy (1877).

Henri Bouchet: The Book: its Printers, Illustrators, and Binders
(1890).

Horatio F. Brown: The Venetian Printing Press (1891).

Falconer Madan: Books in Manuscript (1893).

William Morris: Notes by William Morris on his Aims in
Founding the Kelmscott Press (1895).

Sydney C. Cockerell: A Short History and Description of the
Kelmscott Press (1898).

George Haven Putnam : Books and their Makers in the Middle
Ages (1898).

J. W. Mackail: The Life of William Morris (1899).

Ralph Straus and Robert K. Dent: John Baskerville. A
Memoir (1907).

Auguste Bernard: Geofroy Tory. Translated by George B.
Ives (1909).

Alfred W. Pollard: Fine Books (1912).

Maurits Sabbe: Plantin, the Moretus, and their Work (1926).

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson : Journals (1926).

A. Clutton-Brock : William Morris, His Work and Influence.

M. C. Gillington: A Day with William Morris.

[ 248 ]INDEXINDEX

Accents in French language

introduced by Tory, 87
Adam, James, 170
Addison, Baskerville's, 173
Adolphus 11, Elector of May-

ence, 30
Adramyttenos, 44
iEchines, 58

Aeneidy the, translated by Mor-
ris, 209
iEsop, 48

Agricola, by Tacitus, printed

by Doves Press, 242
Alba, Duke of, 117
Albert, Prince of Carpi, 45,
46, 53

Alcuin of York, head of Caro-
lingian School at Tours,
15 j installs Charlemagne's
reforms, 16
Aide Manuce et Vhellenisme a
Venise, printed by the Didots,
195

Aldine Classics, 56, 64, 65,

143 j pirated, 65
Aldine Press, 49-73, 8o> io7>
149 j materials for, 49 j per-
sonnel of, 50, 515 books
produced by, 52, 53, 55, 56,
58, 60, 61, 645 and Grolier,
68 j Paulus Manutius enters,
68 j and Andrea de Torre-
sani, 69, 70} Paulus Manu-

tius in charge of, 70, 715
closes, 71 j see also Manu-
tius, Aldus
Aldus Manutius, see Manutius,
Aldus

Aleander, Hieronymus, 51
Allen, George, London pub-
lisher, 221
Alnwick, Northumberland,

England, 233
Alphen, Eva van, 147, 148
Amsterdam, Holland, 140J the

Elzevirs in, 147—149
Amynta, printed by Bodoni,
198

Annonay, France, the Didots'

paper mill at, 189, 192
Antwerp, Belgium, preemi-
nence of, in xvi century, 106,
107 j Plantin in, 106-123,
126, 136 j Humanism in,
107, ii4j printing in, 108
et seq.; influence of teach-
ings of Erasmus on, 114
Apulia, Italy, 19
Architecture, and Morris, 210,
211

Ariosto, Baskerville's, 175
Aristofhanesy 5 8
Aristotley 585 Aldus' master-
piece, 53, 55
Arminius, doctrines of, 140
Arola, Italy, 68

[ 251 ]INDEX

Augsburg, Germany, 216$ Rat-
dolt and Pictor from, 365
House of Fugger in, 63, 64,
104

Avignon, France, Petrarch's
home in, 21, 22

Bache, Benjamin Franklin,

quoted, 189, 190
Bade, Josse, printer, 92
Bade, Perette, wife of Robert

£tienne, 92, 93, 98
Balzac, Honore de, letter of, to
Elzevirs about pirating of
his Lettres Choisies, 138
Bartholin, Thomas, quoted, 11
Baskerville House, 177
Baskerville, John, birth of,
15 5 j a writing master, 1565
in Birmingham, 156-1775
cuts gravestones, 156, 1575
as a japanner, 158-162,
1745 estate of, 159, 1605
personal characteristics of,
161, 1655 becomes interested
in Caslon types, 1625 Virgil
of, 163, 169-1735 types of,
164, 167, 172, 176, 1925
opposition to, 165-1755 and
Franklin, 165—167, 172,
1745 letter of, to Dodsley,
1675 paper of, 167, 192,
201 j ink of, 168, 169, 192,
201 j comments on, 169-
171, 180, 2005 scholarship
of, 170, 171 j and Walpole,
170, 1745 success of, 1725
books printed by, 173, 1755
Printer to University of

[ 252]

Cambridge, 1735 retires,
1745 death of, 1755 reopens
Press, 17 5 j property of
Press disposed of, 175, 176}
will of, 176j burial of, 1775
reburial of, 177, 1785 reli-
gion of, 178, 1793 influence
of, 180, 183, 186, 187, 190,
191, 197, 202, 231, 232
Baskerville, Mrs. John, dis-
poses of Baskerville's types,
176

Bassiano, Italy, birthplace of

Aldus, 43
Beaumarchais, 176
Beda, Noel, 117
Belgian Royal printing office,

194
Belgium, 123

Bembo, Pietro, Aldus' associate,

51, 61, 66
Beowulf, Morris', 222
Beroaldo, Filippo, 84
Bessarion, Cardinal, collection
of, 47 j writings of, printed
by Aldus, 64
Bible, the, dependence of peo-
ple of xvi century on, 114
Bible, the, Elzevir editions of,

152

Bible, Baskerville's, 175
Bible, Gutenberg, 28, 29
Bible, the Polyglot, planned by
Aldus, 1145 of Plantin, 114-
118, 127, 151
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
29, 90

Bindings, early, 12, 17, 18} in
xvi century, 83, 1835 Mor-INDEX

ris, 223; Grolier, 70, 835
Cobden-Sanderson, 233-239
Birmingham, England, Bas-

kerville in, 156-177, 190
Bisticci, Vespasiano da, quoted,
18

Blastus, Nicolas, 66; corre-
spondence of, with Musurus,
67

Boccaccio, 19
Boden, Nicholas, 175
Bodoni, Giambattista, 180}
types of, 165, 1885 youth of,
196 j becomes head of Stam-
peria Reale at Parma, 1975
comments on, 198-202 j hon-
ors of, 1995 death of, 202
Bokhara, 16

Bologna, Italy, 21, 59, 6%
Bomberghe brothers, 112
Book, the, in manuscript, 11-
25, 77) 81, 82, 103 j as po-
litical agent, 11, 54, 55, 78,
93> 94 5 and the church, 12-
14, 19, 20, 35, 93-99} earlY
attitude toward, 17, 18, 1035
debt of, to Humanism, 18-
25> 53) 54} in Italy, 30-73,
78, 188, 197-200J illus-
trated, 36, 81, 82, 124, 125,
169 j and Aldus, 45—47, 55,
56, 71, 72 j debt of, to Italy,
53) 54} "arms contending
against," 64, 65, 1395 Gro-
wer's comments on, 695 evo-
lution of the printed, 77, 79-
83, 865 in France, 78-100,
183—1965 and Tory, 83—
895 distribution of, 63, 64,

104, 120, 121} problems
of, in Middle Ages, 105,
1095 and Plantin, 107-123 j
and Plantin's successors,
124-129 j and the Elzevirs,
133-1525 and Baskerville,
156, 161—180, 183, 184,
186, 231} and Caslon, 161}
and the Didots, 180, 187-
196, 202 j and Bodoni, 202,
203} and Ibarra, 202, 203}
and Whittingham, 207, 208}
and Morris, 209, 213-228,
231} and Cobden-Sanderson,
234—247} see also Printing,
Bindings, Engraving, Illus-
trations, Ink, Paper, Pub-
lishing, Shelfback, Title
pages, Types, Woodcuts
Book collecting, 21-23, 238
Book of Common Prayer,

Baskerville's, 173
Book of Hours, Tory's, 86
Booksellers, Fraternity of, 85
Bourges, France, birthplace of

Tory, 83, 84
Bourgoing, Chevalier de,

quoted, 200
Bracciolini, Poggio, quoted, 24,

25

Brescia, Italy, classics in, 64
British Museum, 217
Brown, Ford Madox, 211
Browne, Sir Thomas, quoted,
66

Bruges, Belgium, 1075 Caxton

in, 37
Bruni, quoted, 25
Brussels, Belgium, 194

[253]INDEX

Bucolics of Virgil, printed by

Aldus, 56
Budeus' De Asse, printed at Al-

dine Press, 69
Burgundy, France, Caxton in,
37

Burne-Jones, Lady, 225
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, and
Morris, 210, 211, 222-225

Caen, France, Christophe

Plantin in, 106
Caesar, printed by the Elzevirs,

*43> 145
Calliergi, Zacharias, Greek

publications of, 55, 66
Cambridge University, 126,

i73> 233
Cambridge University Press,

241
Camillus, 25

Campo S. Paternian, Venice,

the Aldine Press in, 49
Candia, Crete, 50, 59, 90
Carlos ill, King of Spain, 199,
201

Carlos iv, King of Spain, 199
Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, 170
Carolingian, School, the, of

handlettering, 15
Carpi, Italy, Aldus at, 44-47,
50, 73 j Aldus' daughter at,
68

Carpi, Prince of, see Miran-

dola, Pico della
Carpi, Princess of (Caterina

Pia), 44, 46, 47
Caslon, William, types of,
161—164, 1805 life of, 162

1254]

Castro, Leon de, of Salamanca,
117

Catalogue Raisonne, printed by
Cobden-Sanderson at the
Doves Press, 244
Cateromachus, Scipio, 51
Cathedral, the, Antwerp, 113
Cato, quoted, 46
Cato, Alda Manutius marries,
68

Caxton, William, 2165 life of,
37, 38} becomes interested
in printing, 385 publications
of, establish English lan-
guage, 39
Cayas, Gabriel de, and Plan-

tin, 108, 115, 118
Cellini, Benvenuto, 79
Censorship, 94-97, 99, 106,

hi, 112, 150
Champfleury, the, by Tory, 84,
85 j far-reaching effect of,
87, 88

Charlemagne, establishes Caro-
lingian School of handlet-
tering at Tours, 155 entrusts
installation of his reforms
to Alcuin, 16
Charles Emmanuel 1, Duke of

Savoy, 117, 121
Charles vn, King of France,
34

Charles the Bold, Duke of

Burgundy, 37
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 211
Chaucer, Works of Geoffrey,
Morris' masterpiece, 217,
222—225
Chiswick Press, 207, 208, 214INDEX

Christ Church, Birmingham,

177, 178
Christina, Queen of Sweden,
150

Church, the, and the Book, 12-
14, 19, 20 j and the Renais-
sance, 24 j and £tienne, 94-
97> 99> 106$ and Plantin,
hi, 112, 119; and the El-
zevirs, 1345 see also In-
quisition, the
Church of England Cemetery,
Warstone Lane, Baskerville
buried in, 178
Cicero, 24, 70, 91
Civis, nom cie flume of Tory,
84

Clarendon Press of Oxford,
England, Aldine Academy
compared with Delegates
of, 605 Baskerville types
at, 176

Classics, the Greek and Latin,
saved by Humanists, 18-25;
and Aldus, 43, 44, 48 et seq.y
114 j popularity of, 64 ; in-
fluence of in xvmth century,
187

Clifford's Inn, London, Walk-
er's office in, 220
Clotilde, Princess, of France,
197

Cobden, Richard, 233
Cobden-Sanderson, Anne (Mrs.

Thomas James), 233, 239
Cobden-Sanderson, Thomas
James, struggles to find him-
self, 233-238; marriage of,
233) 2345 Journals of,

quoted, 234-238, 244-246;
bindings of, 234-239; ideals
of, 235-238; and Walker,
239-241, 243-247; writings
of, 239, 240, 242; and
Doves Bibley 241—243; in
America, 243, 244; destroys
Doves types, 245, 246;
death of, 246, 247; see also
Doves Press
Cochin, 185

Cockerell, Douglas, 238
Colines, Simon de, 79, 86, 91
Cologne, Germany, 80, 140;

Caxton in, 38
Colonna, Petrarch's letter to,
22

Commentaries on Cicero,
printed by Paulus Manutius,
70

Commentaries on Florusy by

Stadius, 127
Constantinople, Turkey, hu-
manists recover classics in,
25, 26, 44
Copenhagen, Denmark, 138,
150

Copper plate engraving, 125,

145) i92
Cork, Earl of, Derrick's letter

to, 160
Corneille, 151

Cradley, Worcestershire, Eng-
land, 162
Crete, and printing, 66, 67
Cretensis, Leonicus, 49
Culloden, Battle of, 156

Dante, 19

[255]INDEX

Dante, printed by Aldus Manu-
tius, 61

Dafhne and Chloey printed by

Bodoni, 198
Da Spira, see John of Spires,

Vindelin of Spires
Dauphin of France (Louis

xviii), 189, 190
De Asse, Budeus', printed at

Aldine Press, 69
De Coverley, binder, Cobden-
Sanderson apprenticed to,
234, 235
Defence of Gueneverey The,

by Morris, 211, 220
De LormePs Chansons, 186
Demosthenes, 58
Denmark, 150, 174
De Put, letter of, to Heinsius,

144 >

De Schotti, 112

Design, see Illustration

De Thou, Jacob Augustus,

quoted, 100
Devices, see Printers' Devices
Dialectica, by Hunnaeus, 126
Diary of Lady Willoughby,
printed by Whittingham,
208

Dibdin, Thomas F., 179, 180
Didot, Ambroise Firmin, in-
troduces the Stanhope press
into France, 1955 designs the
" English cursive" type,
1955 as author, 1955 his
library, 195
Didot, Firmin Ambroise, 180,
191, 192, 195, 2005 types
of, 165, 187, 197, 1985 in-

[256]

vents the process of stereo-
typing, 191} declines direc-
torship of the Imprimerie
Royale, 1915 honors be-
stowed on, 1925 quoted on
Bodoni, 202
Didot, Francois, 188
Didot, Frangois Ambroise, 188-
191 i invents the fresse a un
coufy 188} his fafter velin
de France, 189
Didot, Henri, 195
Didot, Hyacinthe, 194
Didot, Jules, 194
Didot, Pierre Frangois, 188,
I9°> 19S\ establishes paper
mill at Essonne, 190
Didot, Pierre, Vaine, 191, 192,
193, 194, 200—202; quoted,
193; his precautions for ac-
curacy, 193 j honors be-
stowed on, 194
Didot, St. Leger, 195
Dodonaeus, 126
Dodsley, Robert, 167
Dolet, £tienne, publisher, ex-
ecuted for heresy, 97, 106
Domitian, 66

Don Quixote, Ibarra's, 200,
201

Dort, Synod of, 151

Doves Bibley 241—243

Doves Bindery, 238; see also

Cobden-Sanderson
Doves Press, 233, 239, 241-
246; see also Cobden-San-
derson

Doves type, 240, 241 j de-
struction of, 245, 246INDEX

Dream of John Bull, Ay

printed by Morris, 220
Dutch Republic, 123, 139, 150

Earthly Paradise, The, by

Morris, 211
Easy Hill, Birmingham, estate
of Baskerville, 159, 160,
177

Edgbaston, England, 158
Edward IV of England, 37
Edward, Mr., London pub-
lisher, 198
Eisen, 185
Ellis, Mr., 226

Eltville, Germany, Gutenberg's

home in, 26
Elzevir, Abraham, 142, 143,
147

Elzevir, Abraham 11, 148
Elzevir, Anna, 149
Elzevir, Bonaventura, 138-

i39> !43> 147) 149) *5o
Elzevir, Daniel, 134, 147, 148,

150, 151

Elzevir, Isaac, 139-1435 be-
comes University Printer,
141, 142
Elzevir, John, 147
Elzevir, Louis, 149, 150, 1515
foreman of Plantin's Ley-
den office, 122, 134, 1355
early career of, 134-1375
death of, 139
Elzevir, Louis 111, 147, 148
Elzevir, Matthew, 139, 142
Elzevirs, the, 155, 173, 180,
201, 2315 work of, con-
sidered, 133, 134, 143-145,

1515 Balzac's letter to, 1385
printing by, 139-1525 value
of books by, considered, 146,
1475 end of, 147-1495 noms
de guerre of, 150
England, 126, 148, 149, 155,
173) i97) printing in, 38,
39, 161-180, 183, 184-,
207-2475 popularity of
Italic face in, 575 renais-
sance in, 645 in xvin cen-
tury, 156, 157, 187
English language, established

by Caxton's printing, 39
Engraving, 124, 125,. 1455
see also Copper engraving,
Woodcuts
Entretiens sur les Contes de

Fees, 146
Efithalamiay printed by Bo-

doni, 197
Erasmus, Desiderius, 51, 59,

70, 72, 114
Erpinius, Theodorus, 142, 143
Escurial, the, Philip 11 and the

library of, 118
Essai sur Vhistoire de la gra-
vure sur bois, printed by the
Didots, 195
Essonne, France, Didot's pa-
per mill in, 190
Este, Isabella d', Marchesa di
Mantova, letter of Lorenzo
of Pa via to, 60, 61
£tienne, Frangois 11, 98
£tienne, Henri, 79, 82, 84,

86, 90, 91
£tienne, Henri 11, son of Rob-
ert, 96, 98, 121

[ 257]INDEX

£tienne, House of, 90-100,

i9*> 193
ILtienne, Jean, 99
Etienne, Robert, 84, 103, 105,
109, 121, 133, 200j ap-
pointed Royal Printer by
Frangois I, 89, 925 Royal
Greek types of, 89, 90, 96,
97, 115 5 youth of, 90, 91}
founds press, 915 marries,
92 j and Frangois I, 92-975
difficulties of, with church
censors, 94-97, 99, 106,
1175 divides New Testament
chapters into verses, 94, 955
publishes New Testament,
95, 965 types of, 97, 99j
moves to Geneva, 975 de-
tails of press and work of,
97, 985 device of, 985 motto
of, 985 children of, 98, 995
prepares Latin dictionary,
99 5 comments on, 99, 1005
compared with other print-
ers, 100, 109, 128, 145
Etienne, Robert 11, 98
Etienne, Simon, 99
Etymologicumy printed by Cal-

liergi, 67
Etymologicum Magnum, book

printed by Aldus, 64
Euripides, 58

Exeter College, Oxford, 210,
225

Fabriano, Italy, paper manu-
factured at, 32, 49
Faulkners, the, friends of Mor-
ris, 226

[258]

Ferdinand, Duke of Parma,
' i97> i98

Ferrara, Italy, Aldus at, 43,

445 humanists in, 53
Florence, Italy, 1495 early
printing in, 48, 525 human-
ists in, 53, 107
Fontenai, Abbe de, 173
Fournier, Pierre Simon, le
jeuney 172, 1975 "point
system " of, 188
France, 117, 148, 1745 Mero-
vingian style of handletter-
ing in, 155 rcovery of clas-
sics in, 24, 25 j popularity
of Italic face in, 575 renais-
sance in, 64, 68 j gains su-
premacy in printing, 78-
83 j the Book in, 78-100,
184-2005 £tienne's contri-
bution to, 1005 Louis Elze-
vir in, 1375 Baskerville's
influence in, 183, 186, 1875
Revolution in, 176, 186, 187,
190, 1915 classical revival
in, 1875 the Didots in, 184—
200

Francesco da Bologna, type-

cutter, 56
Frangois 1, King of France,
encourages printing, 78, 79,
955 and GeofFroi Tory, 845
and Etienne, 89, 90, 92—975
death of, 97
Frankfort, Germany, 115, 121,

140, 149
Franklin, Benjamin, and Bas-
kerville, 165—167, 173, 1745
and Didot, 189, 1905 andINDEX

Bodoni, 199, 201$ and
Ibarra, 201
Frederick, Duke of Urbino,

library of, 18
French Chamber of Deputies,
192

French typography, mirrors
fashions of the day, 1845
conventional and false, 1865
influence of the Didots upon,
187—200
Frey, quoted, 193
Froben, Johannes, compared

with £tienne, 100
Frumentorum Historia by Dod-

onaeus, 126
Fiigger, House of, bankers,
1075 sell books for Aldus,
63, 64, 104
Fust and Schoeffer, 28-31, 71
Fust, Christina, wife of Peter

Schoeffer, 28
Fust, John, becomes Guten-
berg's partner, 275 forecloses
on Gutenberg, 285 and
Schoeffer, 29

Gaza, Theodore, 50, 52
Geneva, Switzerland, £tienne

in, 97-99, 121
Genoa, Italy, 140
Germany, 117, 139, 149;
Gothic lettering in, 155 re-
covery of classics in, 255
early printing in, 31 $ renais-
sance in, 64 j Louis Elzevir

in, 137

Gerusalemme liberata, 189
Gillington, M. C., quoted, 226

Giunta, the, printer-publishers,

52> 65
Gloucester Cathedral, 13
Gobelin tapestries, 192
Golden Legend% They by Cax-
ton, printed by Morris, 216,
221, 228
Gothic lettering, 15, 87, 215
Gothic type, influence of Tory
abolishes use of, 875 Morris'
preference for, 215
Gourmont, Giles, first Greek

printer in Paris, 84
" Graeco-Roman" art, 187,

188, 197, 200
Grand j on, Robert, type-cutter,

115

Gravelot, 185

Greek, see Classics

Greek grammer, prepared by

Gaza, 52
Greek-Latin dictionary, pre-
pared by Aldus, 52
Greek lexicon, compiled by
Lascaris, printed by Aldus,
52

Gregoropoulos, John, 50
Gregory xiii, Pope, 117
Griffo family, the, type de-
signers, 56
Grolier, Jean, and Aldus, 68,
6 9j and Francesco de Tor-
resani, 695 bindings of, 70,
835 Erasmus' letter to, 70
Guarini of Turin, tutor of Al-
dus, 43
Guicciardini, 113, 126
Gutenberg, printed by Didots,
195

[ 259]INDEX

Gutenberg Bible, 28, 29
Gutenberg, Frilo, 27
Gutenberg-, John, 29-31, 71 j
invents printing, 26, 275 life
of, 26-28 j betrayed by Fust,
27, 28

Haarlem, Holland, 1405 home

of Koster, 30
Hague, The, Holland, 139,

149 >

Hammersmith, London, Mor-
ris in, 214, 220, 221
Handlettering, 12-16
Handsworth, England, 158
Hansa House, the, Antwerp,

113

Hansard, quoted, 168, 169
Hebrew Grammer, by Jean

Isaac, 126
Heidelberg, Germany, 51, 115
Heinsius, Daniel, 151 j De

Put's letter to, 144
Henri 11, King of France, 97,
106

Henri 111, King of France, 121
Henry viii, King of England,
183

Herculaneum, influence of ex-
cavations in, 187
Hero and Leandery by Musaeus,

printed by Aldus, 53
Herodotus, 58

Hierocles, printed by Aldus, 64
Histories of Troy, translated

by Caxton, 38
History of Florence, by Lo-
renzo of Arezzo, 215
History of Godefrey of Bo-
[ 260 ]

loyne, The, printed by Mor-
ris, 221

History of Reynard the Fox,
The, printed by Morris, 221
Hochstetters, the, 107
Holland, 134, 148, 161
Holy See, gives license to Plan-

tin, 119
Homer, 22, 45, 48, 58
Homer, Didot's, 189
Horace, printed by the Elze-
virs, 143, 1445 printed by
Baskerville, 173
House of the Wolfings, by

Morris, 214
Humanism, 18-24, 53} de-
fined, 23, 24, 54 j in Venice,
53, 1075 in Florence, 53,
107 j in Antwerp, 107,
1145 see also Renaissance,
the

Hunnaeus, 126

Ibarra, Joachim, 180, 188}
estimates of, 200-2015 his
contributions to the Book,
201 j death of, 202
Icelandic Sagas, 209
Ideal Book, The, by Cobden-

Sanderson, 240, 242, 243
Illumination, 12, 14-16
Illuminators, work of, 14
Illustrations and Design, 36,
81, 82, 169, 185, 217, 222-
225, 231, 241
Imitation of Christ, by Thomas

a Kempis, 147, 190
Imola, Benvenuto da, quoted,
19, 20INDEX

Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 92,

191-193

India, 16 j Viceroy of, 199
Ink, 16, 49, 163, 164, 201,
220, 223 j Baskerville's, 168,
169, 192, 201
Inquisition, the, 111 j see also

Church, the
Institute of France, 195
Isaac, Jean, 126
Isocrates, 48

Italy, 85; Lombardic hand-
lettering in, 155 recovery of
classics in, 25 5 early printing
in, 30-38,47-735 the Book
in, 30-73} debt of world to,
53> 545 popularity of Italic
face in, 57} renaissance in,
64} loses supremacy in art
of printing to France, 78}
the Elzevirs and, 137, 138}
Bodoni in, 188, 197-200

Jenson, Albert, 36
Jenson, Jacob, 34
Jenson, Nicolas, 45, 49, 68,
71} studies printing, 345
opens office, 34, 355 types of,
35> 165, 215, 231, 2325
will of, 36
Jenson, Nicolas 11, 36
Johannot (paper) mill, Anno-

nay, France, 189
John of Cologne, 34
John of Spires, 33, 34, 45, 71
Julius PolluXy printed by Al-
dus, 64

Kelmscott Press, 208, 210,

213, 214, 217—228, 231,
232, 240, 241 j publications
of, 20, 221} location of,
221, 222} see also Morris,
William
Kempis, Thomas a, 147
Kent, Weald of, Caxton's

birthplace, 37
Killanus, 127

King Edward's School, Bir-
mingham, Baskerville teaches
in, 156

King's Norton, England, 156
Koster, Laurence, invention of
printing claimed for, 30

Langenzoon, Holland, Los-

lein from, 3 6
La Sapienza, College of, Rome,

Tory at, 84
Lascaris, Constantine, compiles

first Greek lexicon, 52
Latin, see Classics
Laura (Petrarch's), 20
Le Be, Guillaume, 115
Le Brun, 185

Legion of Honor, 192, 194,

195

Leipzig, Germany, 140
Leo x, Pope, 94
Leonello, Prince of Carpi, 45,
46

Le Roy, Mrs., 190

Letters of Merula, printed by

Aldus, 64
Lettres Choisiesy by Balzac, 138
Leyden, Holland, Plantin in,
112, 121-123, I34~i36} the
Elzevirs in, 134-149

[ 261 ]INDEX

Leyden, University of, i'22,
134, 1355 Isaac Elzevir be-
comes Printer of, 141, 142
Libraries, 18-23, 53, 90, 117,

141, 183, 225
Libri, Bartolomeo di, 49
Life and Death of Jason, The,

by Morris, 211, 212
Life of Thomas Wolsey, The,

printed by Morris, 220
Life of William Morris, The,

Mackail, quoted, 225
Lipsius, Justus, 122, 124
Lombardic style, the, of hand-

lettering, 15
London, England, 107, 120,
220j Caxton in, 375 Cas-
lon in, 161, 1625 Whitting-
ham in, 2075 Morris in, 214,
220, 221} Cobden-Sander-
son in, 234, 243
Longmans, the, London pub-
lishers, 208
Longus, printed by Didot, 189
Lorenzo of Arezzo, 215
Lorenzo of Pavia, letter of, to

Isabella d'Este, 60, 61
Lorraine Cross, of Geoffr'oi

Tory, 89
Loslein, Peter, 36
Louis xi, King of France, 34
Louis xiv, King of France,

184, 189
Louis xviii, King of France,

190, 194
Louvain, Belgium, 134
Louvain, University of, 116
Louvre, the, 192, 193
Louvre editions, Didot's, 192

[ 262 ]

Love Lyrics and Songs of
Proteus, printed by Morris,
220

Low Countries, the, 107, 126
Lucca, Italy, 595 paper manu-
factured at, 32
Lugduni (Batavorum), 150
Luther, Martin, 93, 94, 114
Lyons, France, 65, 115, 1505

Plantin in, 105
Lysias, 58

Macaulay, Thomas Babing-

ton, quoted, 173
Mace, Robert, printer, 106
Mackail, J. W., quoted, 225
Madrid, Spain, 1805 Ibarra in,

200, 201
Mansion, Colard, 38
Mantova, Marchesa di, 60, 61
Mantua, Italy, humanists in,
53

Manutius, Alda, 68
Manutius, Aldus, 36, 37, 43-
73, 80, 91, 92, 103, 105,
io9> I33> 200j birth and
youth of, 43 j at Carpi, 44-
47) 73> letter from Miran-
dola, 45 j called by printing,
45-47) 7i) 72} type faces
of, 48, 50, 56, 90, 99} and
the classics, 43, 44, 48 et
seq., 114} founds Aldine
Press, 49 et seq.; letter to
Reuchlin, 51} revises and
prints Greek lexicon, 52, 99}
Anchor and Dolphin mark
of, 52, 65, 66, 88} prints
Greek grammer, 52, 99} pre-INDEX

pares and prints Greek-Latin
dictionary, 525 prints Mu-
saeus' Hero and Leander,
53} famous Aristotle of, 53,
5 5 5 dedicates Aristotle to Al-
bert of Carpi, 53j monopo-
lies of, 55, 57} prints Plato,
5 5} attitude of, toward the
Book, 55, 56} Aldine class-
ics of, 56, 64, 65, 143}
founds Ne-accademia Nostra,
59} prints Virgil, 60 j 61}
prints Ovid, 60, 61} prints
Petrarch, 60, 61} prints
Dante, 61} and booksellers,
62, 104} quoted on visitors,

62,	63} famous notice of,
63} letter from Urbanus to,

63,	64} appreciations of,
63, 64, 71-73} comments on
spread of classical apprecia-
tion, 64} indignation of,
over piracy of his books,
65} motto of, 66} friend-
ship with Calliergi and Blas-
tus, 66} marriage of, 68}
death of, 68, 71-73} and
Grolier, 68, 69} funeral of,
73} will of, 73} compared
with other printers, 100,
109, 128, 145} polyglot
Bible planned by, 115

Manutius, Aldus 11, 71

Manutius, Antoninus, 68

Manutius, Manutius, 68

Manutius, Paulus, enters Al-
dine Press, 68} in charge of
Aldine Press, 70, 71} es-
timate of, 71

Marciana Library, Venice, 23
Margaret, Princess of Eng-
land, and William Caxton,
37> 38

Marlborough School, Morris
at, 210

Martin, Robert, senior work-
man of Baskerville, 174,
i75

Maubert, Place, Paris, 97
Mayence, Germany, Guten-
berg's home in, 26, 27, 315
Jenson in, 34} SchoefFer at,
216

Medici, Cosimo de', 18
Mentelin, Johannes, 216
Merovingian style, of hand-

lettering, 15, 16
Merula, Letters of, 64
Milan, Italy, 33, 69} early

printing in, 48, 52
Milton, Baskerville's, 173
Mint, the, Antwerp, 113
Mirandola, Pico della, Prince
of Carpi, 43-46, 50} de-
fines philosophy, 45
Moliere, 151} Works of, 186
Molini, Brothers, 175
Montanus, Benoit Arias,
quoted, no} and Plantin,
116, 118
Monte Cassino, convent of, 19,
20

Montpellier, France, 21
Montreal, Canada, 157
Morals by Plutarch, 51
Moreau, among the first to
make French decorations il-
lustrative of text, 185, 186

[ 263 ]INDEX

Moretus, Balthazar, and the

Plantin Press, 124
Moretus, Edouard, 126
Moretus, Jean, succeeds Plan-

tin, 123, 124, 128
Morris Trustees, 218
Morris, William, 186, 208,
2345 ideals of, 209, 227,
2335 becomes interested in
the Book, 209, 213, 2145
and architecture, 210, 2115
poetry by, 211, 212, 214,
216, 217, 2 22 j socialism of,
212, 213 j and Walker, 213,
214, 220, 225, 240j types
of, 215—219, 222, 228 j de-
signs of, 217, 2225 details
of work of, 218-220 j
Chaucer of, 222—225 j
death of, 225, 2395 de-
scribed, 225-227 j work of,
summarized, 228, 231, 2325
see also Kelmscott Press
Morris, Mrs. William, and

Cobden-Sanderson, 234
Musaeus5 Hero and Leander,

printed by Aldus, 53
Musurus, Marcus, 50, 51, 67,
725 correspondence of, with
Blastus, 67

Naples, Italy, 81, 117, 138}

humanists in, 53
Napoleon Bonaparte, 187, 194,
199

Nature of Gothic, The, printed

by Morris, 221
Ne-accademia Nostra, founded
by Aldus, 59, 60

[ 264]

Neobar, Conrad, Royal Printer

to Frangois 1, 89
Netherlander, genius and skill
in developing commercial in-
terests, 107
Netherlands, the, 106, 107,

113, 123
New Amsterdam, 148
New Testament, published by

£tienne, 95, 96
New York, 148
News from Nowhere, printed

by Morris, 220
Nicholas v, 18
Noble, Mark, quoted, 170
" Nook, The," Cobden-Sander-

son's bindery at, 238
Northumberland, England, 233

Octavo format, originated by

Aldus, 57
Odyssey, the, 209
" On the Nature of Gothic"
(Ruskin's Stones of Venice),
210

Ordene de Chevalerie, L\

printed by Morris, 221
Order of Chivalry, The,

printed by Morris, 221
Orleans, Due d', Regent of

France, 184
Orleans, France, 106
Ovid, printed by Aldus, 60, 61 j
printed by the Elzevirs, 143
Oxford, England, 60, 176,
210, 211, 225

Padua, Italy, 595 paper manu-
factured at, 32INDEX

Padua, University of, 50
Pannartz, Arnold, 31, 32, 49,
7i

Pannonia, renaissance in, 64
Papal Court, at Rome, 198
Paper, early a staple product
of Italy, 3 2 3 used by Al-
dine Press, 49, 61, 69 j used
in piratical reprints, 653 in-
ferior quality from Switzer-
land, 145; Baskerville's,
163, 167 j first high-finished,
x^7, 1735 Didots', 189, 190,
*92> J95> ^rst made in end-
less roll, 1955 Ibarra's, 201 3
Morris', 216, 219
Pafier velin de France, Fran-
cois Ambroise Firmin's, 189
Paris, 65, 106, 107, 174, 175,
199 j Petrarch offered lau-
reate's crown by, 225 Jenson
in, 345 Tory in, 84, 85, 895
the £tiennes in, 90-975 and
Plantin, 106, 112, 115, 1205
the Elzevirs in, 1505 a re-
vivified Rome, 1873 Didots
in, 180, 187-196
Parma, Italy, Petrarch's library
in, 233 paper manufactured
in, 323 Bodoni in, 180, 197—
199

Pastissier Frangois, Le, printed

by the Elzevirs, 147
Pavia, Italy, 60
Pentateuch, Plantin's, 128
Perez, 121
Persia, 16

Pescia, Italy, paper manufac-
tured at, 32

Petit, Jean, 84

Petrarch, Francis, humanist,
18—24, 585 handwriting of,
translated into " Italic " type
by Aldus, 48, 56, 61
Petrarch, printed by Aldus, 60,
61

Philip 11, King of Spain, 1233
subsidizes Plantin's Polyglot
Bible, 115—119
Philosophy, defined, 45
Piazza Manin, Venice, the Al-

dine Press in, 49
Pickering, William, publisher,
207

Pictor, Bernard, 36
Piedmont, Italy, 196-198
Piedmont, Prince of, 197
Pindar, 58
Pius v, Pope, ii6
Plantin, Christophe, 133, 1525
youth of, 1053 in Paris, 106 j
in Antwerp, 106-123, 126,
1363 as a leather worker,
108, 1093 stabbed, 1083
founds the Plantin Press,
1093 described, 109, no3
and the wars, no, 1113
and the Church, in, 112,
1173 religion of, 111, 1123
as a publisher, 112 3 in
Leyden, 112, 121-12 3,
13 4—13 7 j Polyglot Bible of,
114^119, 1513 and King
Philip of Spain, 115—119,
1233 propositions concerning
Polyglot Bible made to, 115,
1213 difficulties of, 1183
made frototyfografhe, 119 3

[ 265 ]INDEX

given license by Holy See,
119 j financial recovery of,
119; as a publisher, 120,
121, 126—129 j death of,
.1235 compared with other
printers, 109, 128, 145,
1805 see also Plantin Press
Plantin, Madeleine, Planting

letter to, 110
Plantin-Moretus Museum, Ant-
werp, 110, 126
Plantin Press, founded, 1095
organization of, no5 ran-
somed, nij described, 112,
113, 126—1295 device of,
117, 119 j difficulties of,
118} recovery of, 1195 and
Jean Moretus, 123, 1335
and Balthazar Moretus, 124,
133; becomes museum, 1255
see also Plantin, Christophe
Plato, 58

Plato, printed by Aldus, 5 5
PlautuSy 51

Plessis, College of, Paris, 84
Pliny, printed by the Elzevirs,
145 j printed by Jenson, 215,
240
Plutarch, 58
Plutarch's Morals, 51
Poems by the Wayy written and
printed by William Morris,
217, 220
Poems of William Shakespeare,
The, printed by Morris, 220
" Point system," Fournier's,
188

Polizianoy printed at the Al-
dine Press, 70

[ 266 ]

Pompeii, influence of excava-
tions in, 187
Pomponius Mela, 84
Porret, Claude, Planting fos-
ter-father, 105, 106
Porret, Peter, 106
Portugal, 107
Prague, Czechoslovakia, 31
Press, the, see Book, the
Press of the Propaganda Office,

Rome, 196
Presse a un coup, the, invented
by Francois Ambroise Didot,
188

Prince, Mr., 240
Printers' Devices, 805 Aldus',
52, 66, 88, 2075 Tory's, 88,
895 £tienne's, 98} Plantin's,
117, 1195 Morris', 219
Printing, the invention of, n,
26} early attitude toward,
17, 18, 36, 54} stamp, 265
early difficulties of, 29, 35,
57, 103} in Subiaco, 31,
32, 33} in Rome, 32, 33} in
Venice, 32-36, 47"73> 215-y
in Milan, 3 3} in Bruges, 3 8}
in England, 38, 39, 161-
180, 183, 184, 207—247}
and the universities, 50, 59,
60, 65} and Crete, 66, 67}
Grolier's comments on, 69}
in Paris, 90-97, 106, 112,
115, 120, 150, 180, 187-
196} in Geneva, 97-99,
121} and foienne, iooj be-
comes a distinct art, 103,
104} in Antwerp, 108-1335
in Ley den, 139-1525 darkINDEX

age of, 1555 the renaissance
of, 208, 231
Ptolemy Philadelphia, 60 j

Academy of, 60
Publishing, 85, 97, 104, 106,

112,	120, 121, 126—129,
i73> i9x> *95 > by the

Elzevirs, 133-152

Quaritch, Bernard, publisher,
221

Quarto formaty yields to oc-
tavo, 56
Queen Square, London, 226
Quintilian, 25

Racine, the Didots', 193
Raphelengius, Francis, 123,

127, 136
Ratdolt, Erhardus, 36, 49, 71,
80

Read, quoted, 179
Recuyell of the Historyes of
Traye, printed by Morris,
221

Reeves and Turner, publishers,
220

Reformation, the, 94
Regio, Raphael, 73
Remonstrants and contra-

Remonstrants, 140
Renaissance, the, 18; and the
Church, 245 effect of print-
ing on, 26j and Plantin,

113,	1145 see also Humanism
Renner, Franz, 34
Reuchlin, Johann, 51, 72
Riessinger, Sixtus, 81

Rime, by Petrarch, 20

Robertson, 170
Rochelle, Nee de la, quoted,
201

Rome, Italy, 219 j Petrarch of-
fered laureate's crown by,

225	early printing in, 32,
33 j Aldus in, 435 humanists
in, 53, 595 Tory in, 845
influence of, 1875 Bodoni
in, 1965 Papal Court at, 198

Roots of the Mountains, by

Morris, 214
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 211,

226

Rotterdam, Holland, 51, 59
Royal Greek types, 91, 97, 99,

115

Rubeis, Jacobus de, 215
Rubens, Peter Paul, and Plan-
tin, no, 12oj and Balthazar
Moretus, 124
Rufus, Mutianus, 64
Ruggeri, Bodoni's master, 196
Ruskin, John, influence on

Morris of, 209, 210
Russia, 174
Rylands, John, 177

St. Aubin, 186
Saint-Avertin, France, Plantin

born in, 105
Saint Benoit, Church of, Paris,
89

Saint Jacques, rue, Paris, 89
Saint-Jean de Beauvais, rue,
Paris, £tienne's press on, 90,
92, 98

Saint Just, Church of, Lyons,
106

[ 267 ]INDEX

St. Philip's Church, Birming-
ham, 177
Saint Scholastica, Monastery
of, 31

Salamanca, Spain, 117, 121
Sallusty Ibarra's, 200, 201
Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy, 196,
197

Sambix, Jean, nom de guerre
of Elzevirs, 150

S. Agostino, Church of, Venice,
49

San Canciano, Venice, Jenson's

residence at, 35
San Clemente, Venice, 35
Sanderson, Thomas James, see

Cobden-Sanderson
San Gallen, 25

San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice,
35

S. Paternian, Church of, Ven-
ice, Aldus' funeral in, 73
San Salvador, Venice, Jenson's

printing office at, 35
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Ven-
ice, Jenson buried in, 35
Saragossa, Spain, Ibarra, born

in, 200
Sauvel, quoted, 9$

Savoy, Duke of, 118, 121
Schoeffer, Peter, Gutenberg's
apprentice, 28, 29, 30, 216
Schouten, Nicy nom de guerre

of Elzevirs, 150
Scribes, monastic, routine of,

13

Scribes, secular, work of, 14
Scriptoria, 13
Seneca, 51

[ 268 ]

Sevres porcelains, 187, 192
Shelf back, 83

Sigurd the Volsung, by Morris,

212

Sixtus IV, Pope, 35
Socialism, and Morris, 212,

213

Socialist League, 213
Societe de la fonderie generate,
196

S0cie te Litteraire- Typographi-
que, purchases Baskerville's
types, 176
Sommevoire, Troyes, home of

Jenson, 34
Sophocles, 58

Sophocles, printed by Aldus,
56

Sorbonne, the, 95, 96, 117
Spain, 107, 108,. 123, 198,
1995 Visigothic handletter-
ing in, 155 minium from,
16} renaissance in, 64;
Ibarra in, 188, 200, 201
Spalatinus, Magister, 64
"Spanish Fury," 111, 114,

120, 135
Speyer, Rhenish Bavaria, 33
Stadius, 126

Stamperia Reale, Parma, Bo-

doni at, 197
Stanhope press, introduced into

France, 195
States-General of Holland,

141, 150
Stereotyping, invented by Fir-

min Didot, 191
Stones of Venice, by Ruskin,
210INDEX

Story of the Glittering Plain,

The, by Morris, 216, 220
Strassburg, Gutenberg's home

in, 27, 216
Street, George Edmund, 211
Subiaco, Italy, 31, 32, 33
Sweden, 150

Sweynheym and Pannartz, see
Sweynheym, Conrad, and,
Pannartz, Arnold

Sweynheym, Conrad, 31, 49,
71

Switzerland, humanists recover

classics in, 25
Symonds, John Addington,
quoted, 23

Tacitus, 242

Tasso's Gerusalemme liber at a,
189

Tauchnitz editions, 149
Taylor, John, japanner, 158,

159, 162, 179
Telemaque, 190
Terence, 51 j printed by the

Elzevirs, 143, 145
Theocritus, 48
Ther Hoernen, Arnold, 80
Thirty Years' War, 139, 149
Thucydides, 58

Title pages, 80, 125, 145, 170
Torresani, Andrea de, 685 pur-
chases Jenson's type and
presses, 68 5 combines his
press with the Aldine, 68 j
and Grolier, 69
Torresani, Ferderico de, 68
Torresani, Francesco de, 685
letter from Grolier to, 69

Torresani, Maria de, marries

Aldus, 68
Tory, Agnes, 88
Tory, Geoffroi, youth of, 83,
84 j appointed Royal Printer
by Frangois I, 84, 895
Chamffleury of, 84, 85,
87 j as engraver and book-
seller, 85; Book of Hours
of, 86 j revolutionizes French
type design and abolishes use
of Gothic, 86, 875 and
French language, 87; de-
vices of, 88, 895 death of,
89, 925 influence of, 99,
143

Tours, France, 16, 105
Town Hall, the, Antwerp, 113
Trinity College, Cambridge,
233

Troyes, France, 34
Turin, Italy, 43, 121
Turrecremata, Juan, introduces

printing into Italy, 31
Types, Jenson's Romani, 35,
164, 215, 231, 232 j Aldus'
Roman, 48, 99; Aldus'
Italic, 48, 56, 99j Aldus'
Greek, 50, 905 Italic, 575
Roman, 57, 2155 Grolier's
comments on, 705 early,
77, 231; Coline's (Tory's)
Italic, 86} Tory's Roman,
86} Tory's theory on, 87}
Gothic, 87, 215} £tienne's
Royal Greek, 91, 97, 99,
115} £tienne's, 97, 99}
Plantin's, 115} Erpenius',
1425 the Elzevirs', 143}
[ 269 ]INDEX

Caslon's, 161—166, 172,
208} Baskerville's, 164,
167, 172, 176, 1925
Didot's, 165, 187, 189, 192,
195, 198, 2075 Bodoni's,
165, 197, 198, 2075 Dutch,
1845 beginning of modern,
188, 207, 208j "English
cursive," 195 j microscopic,
1955 Fournier's, 1975 Ibar-
ra's, 201, 207; old style,
208 j Basle, 2145 Morris'
214^219, 222, 228, 2325
Doves, 240, 241, 245, 246

Universities, and printing,
50, 59, 60, 65, 122, 134,

i35, 141, 142, 147, 152

Urbanus, letter of, to Aldus,

63

Utrecht, Holland, 139

Valdarfer, Christopher, 34

Valois, Marguerite de, Queen
of Navarre, 93

Van Dyke, Christophe, 143,
i45

Vatican, the, 219

Vaucluse, Petrarch's home in,
22

Vellum, 16, 17, 219

Venetian Academy, see Ne-ac-
cademia Nostra

Venice, Italy, 117, 140$ Pe-
trarch's home in, 235 early
printing in, 33-36, 45, 48,
53> 55> 80, 2155 Aldus in,
47—73 j humanists in, 53,
107 j grants monopolies to

[ 270]

Aldus, 55, 57j Ne-accademia
Nostra in, 59, 60} wars of,
64, 65} the Elzevirs in, 149
Vergetios, Angelos, 89, 90
Versailles, Museum at, 192
Vespasian, 66

Victoire, Pierre, quoted, 97
Vincenza, Italy, early printing

in, 48
Vindelin of Spires, 49
Virgil, Bucolics of, printed by

Aldus, 56, 60, 61
Virgil, Plantin's, 127} Basker-

ville's, 163, 169—173
Visigothic style, of handletter-

ing, 15
Voltaire's Works, 176

Waflard, 189

Walker, Emery, and Morris,
213, 214, 220, 225, 240}
and Cobden-Sanderson, 239-
241, 243-247} designs
Doves type, 240, 241} and
Doves Bible, 241—2435 com-
ments on, 246, 247
Walpole, Horace, and Basker-

ville, 170, 174
Walthamstow, Essex, England,
210

Warstone Lane, England, 178
Watt, James, 157
Watteau, Antoine, 185
Webb, Philip, 211
Wedgewood, Josiah, 187
Welsers, the, bankers, 107
Wesley, John, 156
Whitefield, George, 156
Whittingham, Charles, theIN

younger, estimate of work
of, 237, 2385 revives the
use of old-style type, 237
William of Orange (the Si-
lent), 122, 135
Wittenberg, Germany, 94
Wolverley, Worcester-
shire, England, 155
Woodcuts, 36, 81, 85, 169,

185, 195, 214, 223
Worcester, England, 176

EX

Worcestershire, England, 155
162

Wyatt, John, 157

Xenofhon, printed by Aldus,
58, 64

Young, Arthur, quoted, 198

Zainer, Gunther, 216
Zell Press, Cologne, 38

[ 271 ]This volume is composed in linotype Caslon
Old Face based upon the original designs
of William Caslon in 1737.

The paper is Warren's No. 66 antique finish.

The typography, presswork, and binding are
by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massa-
chusetts, under the personal supervision of
William Dana Orcutt.This book is a preservation facsimile produced for
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
It is made in compliance with copyright law
and produced on acid-free archival

60# book weight paper
which meets the requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper).

Preservation facsimile printing and binding
by

Northern Micrographics
Brookhaven Bindery
La Crosse, Wisconsin
2017