College and Research Libraries


(and indeed the German Army Library Serv-
ice was similar in many ways to our o w n ) . 
As an historical review it does not treat of 
the solutions which might have been used. But 

as f a r as it goes, Books for the Army 
does well a job that needed to be done.— 
Herbert Goldhor, University of Illinois Li-
brary School. 

Books A b o u t Printing and Bookmaking 
Abriss der lateinischen Palaeographie. B y 

H a n s Foerster. Bern, Paul H a u p t , 1949, 
2i2p. Swiss F r a n k . $20.00. 

Maimer Probedrucke. E i n B e i t r a g z u r 
Gutenberg-Forschung. By Carl W e h m e r . 
Munich, Leibnis-Verlag, 1948, 6op., 12 
illus. $6.00. 

Gutenberg und der Weg des Abendlandes. 
By Konrad F. Bauer. F r a n k f u r t A. M . , 
Verlag der Goldene Brunnen, 1949, i8p. 

Typographic Heritage. Selected Essays by 
Lawrence C. W r o t h . N e w York, T h e 
Typophiles, 1949, i62p. (Typophile Chap-
book X X . ) 
T h e books selected here for review are 

each, in a different way, of interest to the 
scholarly librarian who likes to keep in-
formed of progress in the history of printing 
and bookmaking. 

T h e circle of men and women among li-
brarians interested in the development of 
handwriting and the deciphering of medieval 
texts is not a large one, but it exists. Its 
members will be glad to learn of the ap-
pearance of Professor H a n s Foerster's man-
ual of paleography. In several regards this 
is a modest work. T h e r e are no plates or 
text illustrations; they were left out with 
the deliberate intention of keeping the price 
down. Also, the author is modest in his own 
approach to the many debatable questions in 
the field of Latin paleography. On each of 
these questions he takes great pains to ac-
quaint the reader with every published opin-
ion by every authority of rank and caliber. 
I t cannot be said that this method promotes 
easy reading, and recognition of the bold out-
lines of evolution is not greatly facilitated 
thereby. But the presentation is a conscien-
tious and fair one which leads the reader into 
the very midst of the stream of discussion 
and analysis. T h e English and American lit-
erature, it should be added, is not as familiar 
to the author as the continental European 
one. T h e significant study of Felix Reich-
mann on the book in ancient Rome and the 
studies of Stanley Morison and of H . S. 

Steinberg on the late medieval writing master 
are not mentioned. 

T h e strength of H a n s Foerster's Abriss 
der lateinischen Palaeographie lies in t h e 
presentation of reasonably up-to-date knowl-
edge in skillful condensation. T h e history of 
paleography as a discipline, the contribution 
of the important masters of the field and 
their publications, the various materials and 
forms of the written record, notes on the 
scribe, on the medieval book trade and on li-
braries, together with the detailed analysis of 
the evolution of the Roman alphabet in its 
various forms, make this a worthwhile book 
to own and to study. 

D r . Carl W e h m e r ' s Maimer Probedrucke 
contains sensational revelations to everyone 
who has followed serious research on the ori-
gin of European printing with movable type. 
W e h m e r ' s study is based on the careful 
scrutiny of a small group of loose leaves, 
rescued from an unknown early binding, in 
the Jagellonian University Library in C r a -
cow, previously described inaccurately as 
"Donatus Fragments." Actually, the leaves 
turn out to be simultaneous trial impressions 
of three different publications, one indeed a 
Donatus, the other one a trial proof of the 
so-called Astronomical Calendar for 1448 
and the third a trial proof for a hitherto not 
recorded 40-line Bible project, all in the type, 
more or less, of the 36-line Bible. They are 
excellent, clean impressions, pulled on the 
loose pages of an old account book of a 
M a i n z cloth merchant of the latter four-
teenth century. C a r e f u l study of the type 
shows beyond doubt that the three projects 
f o r which these proofs were made were 
initiated a f t e r the securely dated " T u e r k e n -
bulle" of 1456. T h e seemingly unsurmounta-
ble difficulty which this discovery presents is 
the fact that the so-called Astronomical Cal-
endar for 1448 ( C W 1285) has been con-
sidered by its discoverer, Professor Zedler, 
and by every subsequent authority, as se-
curely dated—on astronomical evidence—for 
the year 1448. T h e r e f o r e , it has been al-

JANUARY, 1951 91 



ways concluded it must have been produced 
sometime toward the end of 1447. O n this 
date and the state of the type used in this 
calendar, has been erected a whole elaborate 
chronological pyramid of early M a i n z im-
pressions. Forced by the new evidence of his 
discovery, C a r l W e h m e r is able to demolish 
this structure with one bold stroke: T h e 1448 
calendar, he is able to show, was neither 
astronomical nor yet really a calendar. It 
was astrological in nature and intent, nothing 
more than a rather crudely calculated table 
of the planets in relationship to the phases 
of the moon. T h e r e f o r e the calendar is in no 
way tied to the year 1448 which it happens 
to fit astronomically. I t is difficult to see 
where Wehmer could be wrong in his essen-
tial argumentation. T h e r e is, of course, no 
room here for the detailed discussion of his 
excellent structure of reasoning. 

His conclusions are startling but really 
quite simple: T h e Cracow trial proofs were 
made between 1457 and 1459 in M a i n z by 
the anonymous printer of the T u r k ' s Calen-
dar, who was then planning a reprint of the 
42-line Bible. H e is probably identical with 
the man who moved to Bamberg and pro-
duced there the 36-line Bible. H e was 
neither Gutenberg, nor Fust or Schoeffer. 
Editorially and artistically, his work is 
mainly popular and imitative in character, in 
striking contrast to the originality and the 
spiritual quality of Gutenberg's work. 

It is difficult to see how, in the never-end-
ing stream of Gutenberg studies, a really 
fresh evaluation of his contribution might be 
possible. Yet, this is precisely what D r . 
Konrad F . Bauer, literary consultant of the 
Bauer T y p e Foundry and instructor of 
graphic arts in the new French-sponsored 
University of M a i n z , has achieved. His 
Gutenberg und der Weg des Abendlandes 
cuts loose from every romantic and senti-
mentally exaggerated evaluation of the print-
ing press, which a f t e r all has done as much 
harm as good. D r . Bauer sees a new im-
portance of Gutenberg's invention as the 
starting point of modern industrial pro-
duction. W i t h the casting mould and the 
printing press, Gutenberg created two mass 
production processes dependent upon each 
other. H e was the first to use the far-reaching 
discovery that "it was economically worthwhile 
to employ the most costly and delicate proc-

esses in the creation of an original model if 
the end product therefrom could rapidly be 
produced by machine." It was also in the 
printing industry that for the first time in the 
history of manufacture the need for indus-
trial standardization was felt. Eighteenth-
century printing saw decisive contributions in 
this direction at least a century earlier than 
any other branch of production. T h u s it can 
be said that mechanization, division of labor 
and standardization were first developed in 
the printing industry. 

T h e invention of printing is also the first 
topic dealt with in Lawrence C. W r o t h ' s 
Typographic Heritage, t h e r e p r i n t of his 
opening address, " T h e Fifteenth Century 
Book," at the Pierpont M o r g a n Library Ex-
hibition of the anniversary year 1940. T h i s 
volume, the twentieth in the Typophiles' 
series of chapbooks, handsomely printed by 
the Anthoensen Press, is a collection of vari-
ous essays by the scholarly librarian of the 
John C a r t e r Brown Library in Providence, 
R.I. T h e i r assembly from different places 
in one volume brings together scattered con-
tributions not easily located, and it lends con-
tinuity and new meaning to each unit. " T h e 
British Influence Upon American Printing," 
for instance, was originally an address made 
on occasion of the presentation of the gold 
medal of the American Institute of Graphic 
A r t s to Stanley Morison in J u n e 1946. I t 
reviews the English forces that have made 
themselves felt from the very beginning of 
printing in English speaking N o r t h America 
down to the times of Stanley Morison and of 
ourselves, his contemporaries. T h e third 
article, "Corpus Typographicum," owes its 
origin to the preliminary spade work neces-
sary for the writing of a chapter on the early 
printing press in M r . W r o t h ' s well-known 
Colonial Printer. H e found it desirable to 
examine the entire series of seventeenth and 
eighteenth-century printing manuals, which 
he discovered, "comprises a single body of 
typographic lore, unified by the rules of prac-
tice contained in the first of them, Moxon's 
Mechanick Exercises." 

"Benjamin F r a n k l i n : T h e P r i n t e r at 
W o r k " was one of the papers delivered in the 
course of the " M e e t D r . Franklin" Confer-
ence conducted by the Franklin Institute of 
Philadelphia in a series of meetings of the year 
1939-40. I t is valuable in its concentration 

92 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



upon its theme, focusing close attention to all 
the various activities and contributions of 
Franklin's many-sided genius to the one great 
complex of activities which we today call the 
graphic a r t s industry. 

T h e last article " T h e F i r s t W o r k with 
American T y p e , " a logical sequence to the 
previous articles dealing with earlier aspects 
of printing, was originally published in 1924 

N e w List of State 
Author Headings for the Official Publica-

tions of the State of Washington. By 
Lena Lucile T u c k e r . Seattle, University 
of Washington Press, 1950, 75p. $1.50. 
T h i s list was begun in 1939 by a commit-

tee appointed by M . R u t h M a c D o n a l d , then 
chairman of regional groups for the Pacific 
N o r t h w e s t , A.L.A. Division of Cataloging 
and Classification. I t was found difficult to 
maintain uniformity with the w o r k being 
done in different places without constant con-
sultation, and a f t e r a number of changes in 
the committee members, M i s s T u c k e r took 
over the task of compilation. 

T h e list attempts to include official en-
tries f r o m the organization of the T e r r i t o r y 
of Washington in 1853 to the year 1947. T h e 
official names, given in straight form as listed 
in the laws, are used as entries. I n f o r m a t i o n 
given under each entry (when available) con-
sists of three p a r t s : date of establishment 
and history, function and bibliographic r e f -
erences. Omitted are the many and varied 
committees of both houses of the legislature, 
schools, colleges and departments of the in-
stitutions of higher education. U n d e r the 
headings A R M O R Y C O M M I S S I O N S ; B A N K S ; 
and T A X A T I O N , the history of the various 
changes in these agencies is given for the 
convenience of the user. 

T h e entries are arranged alphabetically, 
letter by letter, in three alphabets: W a s h i n g -
ton ( T e r . ) , Washington ( S t a t e ) , and entries 
not preceded by W a s h i n g t o n ( S t a t e ) . En-
tries for institutions are interfiled with the 
official entries in their alphabetical places. 

T h e usefulness of the T u c k e r list is readily 
seen when its entries are compared with 
those given in the Library of Congress Cata-
log of Books Represented by L. C. Printed 
Cards, Ann Arbor, 1942-46, and supplements, 
for the period covered. U n d e r Washington 

as M r . W r o t h ' s contribution to "Biblio-
graphic Essays. A T r i b u t e to W i l b e r f o r c e 
Eames." T h e entire volume of M r . W r o t h ' s 
essays, followed by an appreciative note by 
Paul A. Bennett, the guiding spirit of the 
Typophiles, is in itself a becoming tribute 
to one of America's greatest scholarly li-
b r a r i a n s . — H e l l m u t Lehmann-Haupt, New 
School for Social Research. 

Author Headings 
( T e r . ) , T u c k e r lists 65 entries and 19 "see" 
references, while L.C. lists 16 main entries, 
of which 11 are given in T u c k e r , and eight 
"see" references not included in T u c k e r . 
F o r Washington ( S t a t e ) , T u c k e r gives 447 
main entries and 541 "see" references, while 
L.C. lists 212 main entries, of which 140 are 
given in T u c k e r , and 203 "see" references, 
of which 97 are given in T u c k e r ( L . C . uses 
inverted form for 43 of these). Five en-
tries given as "see" references in T u c k e r are 
used as main entries in L.C. U n d e r entries 
not preceded by Washington ( S t a t e ) , T u c k e r 
lists 16 main entries (all beginning with the 
w o r d W a s h i n g t o n ) and three "see" r e f e r -
ences. Similar entries are found in the L.C. 
list, but since it is difficult to determine that 
these entries are for official publications, they 
have not been compared. T h i s comparison 
gives an indication of the relative amount of 
aid that is available to documents catalogers 
and reference librarians working with W a s h -
ington state documents f r o m these two 
sources of information. 

Although most of the rules, compiled by 
the Special Committee on State A u t h o r 
Headings of the A.L.A.'s Division of C a t a -
loging and Classification as a guide for com-
pilers of state-author headings lists (cf. 
M a r k l e y , A . E . : Author Headings for the 
Official Publications of the State of Ala-
bama, Chicago, 1948, p. 122-123) have been 
followed, there have been some changes in 
this list. Although rule f o u r states that the 
history of an agency should appear only 
under the latest name of the agency, and 
references should be made f r o m earlier names 
to the latest name, M i s s T u c k e r has pre-
ferred to give the authority for the individ-
ual entry and a statement of the date and 
agency it supersedes and of that superseding 
it {cf. "Washington ( S t a t e ) . State board of 

JANUARY, 1951 93