1 A [ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/notableprintersoOOdevi The Committee on Publications of the Grolier Club certifies that this copy of "Notable Printers of Italy during the Fif- teenth Century" is from an edition of four hundred copies printed in the summer of the year 1909. Three hundred copies on plain and three copies on Japan paper are for the Grolier Club, and ninety- seven copies are reserved for the author. NOTABLE PRINTERS OF ITALY DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY NOTABLE PRINTERS OF ITALY DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ILLUSTRATED WITH FACSIMILES FROM EARLY EDITIONS AND WITH REMARKS ON EARLY AND RECENT PRINTING BY THEODORE LOW DEVINNE THE GROLIER CLUB OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 1910 Copyright, 1910, by Thbodoee Low DeVinne CONTENTS Page Introduction 15 Early Italian Books 21 The Older Roman Alphabets . . 29 Sweinheim and Pannartz .... 37 Conrad Sweinheim 49 Ulric Hahn 53 John Philip de Lignamine ... 56 George Herolt 58 George Laner 60 John and Wendelin of Speyer . . 65 Wendelin of Speyer 68 ISTicolas Jen son 72 Andrew Torresano 79 Bartholomew of Cremona .... 82 Erhard Ratdolt 85 Franz Renner 88 Jacob Rubens 92 Baptista de Tortis 94 Bartholomew de Zanis 98 Aldus Manutius 100 John N"umeister 117 Sixtus Riessinger 119 Antonio Miscomini 121 3 Contents Page Antonio Zarotto 123 The Ripoli Press ....... 127 Caligula Bazalerio 128 Ulric Gering 131 Claude Garamond 134 Large and Small Types 137 Type-Founding 147 Printing Ink 159 Paper 163 Composition 171 The Hand Press 187 Authorities 201 Index 203 FACSIMILES Plate Page The R Printer of Strasburg, 1465-70 .... 20 Sophologium of lac le Grand. Hain *10471. Proctor 240. 1 Manuscrix3t on vellum. Unknown scribe . . 25 De Oratore of Cicero. From library of Mr. H. C. Hoskier of the Grolier Club. 2 Antonio Zarotto. Milan, 1490 27 The Sforziada of Giovanni Simonetta. Proctor 5828. Illuminated Manuscripts of the British Museum. Latin Uncials and Minuscules 31 The Alphabet by Dr. Isaac Taylor. 3 Sweinheim and Pannartz. Subiaco, 1465 . . 39 Lactantius. Hain 9806. Proctor 3288. Prom library of Mr. Robert Hoe of the Grolier Club. 4 Reproduction of the Types of the Lactantius 41 Mr. C. H. St. John Hornby's reprint of the Inferno of Dante. 1902. 5 Sweinheim and Pannartz. Rome, 1470 ... 43 Hleronymi Epistolae. Hain *8552. Proctor 3312. 5 Facsimiles Plate Page 6 Arnold Pannartz. Rome, 1476 47 St. Thomae Questiones de Veritate. Hain *1420. Proctor 3533, 7 Conrad Sweinlieim. Rome, 1478 48 Map of Sardinia from Geography of Ptolemy. Hain 13537. Proctor 3613. 8 Conrad Sweinlieim, Rome, 1478 51 Geography of Ptolemy. Edition of Peter de Torre. Rome, 1490. Hain *13541. Proctor 3966. From library of Mr. H. C. Hoskier. 9 Ulric Halm, Rome, 1475 55 Albertus de Eyb : Summa Oratorum Omnium. Hain *6819. Proctor 3364. 10 John Philip de Lignamine. Rome, 1482 ... 57 Oratio in vitnm et merita divi S. Bonaventure. Hain *10830. 11 George Herolt. Rome, 1481 59 Origenis Prosemium contra Celsum. Hain *12078. Proctor 3921. 12 George Lauer. Rome, 1470 61 Joannes Chrysostomus : Homilse. Hain *5036. Proctor 3402. From collection of Mr. H. C. Hoskier. 13 A Printer at Rome, 1474 Satires of Juvenal. Hain *9690. Proctor 3457. 6 63 Facsimiles Plate Page 14 John and Wendelin of Speyer. Venice, 1470. 67 Livy: Decades. Hain 10130. Proctor 4023. 15 Wendelin of Speyer. Venice, 1475 71 Commentary of John Duns Scotus on tlie Four Books of Sentences by Thomas Aquinas. Hain *6454:. Proctor 4411. 16 Mcolas Jenson. Venice, 1471 73 Quintilianus : Institutiones Oratorise. Hain *13647. Proctor 4073. 17 John of Cologne and JS'icolas Jenson. Venice, 1481 77 John Duns Scotus on the Third Book of Sentences. Hain *6418. 18 Andrew Torresano. Venice, 1498 80 The Decretals of Pope G-regory. Hain *8036. Proctor 4744. 19 Bartholomew of Cremona. Venice, 1472 . . 83 Vergili Maronis Opera. Proctor 4223. 20 Eatdolt, Loslein and Maler. Venice, 1477 . . 84 Appianus Alexandrinus de "bellis civilibus. Hain *1307. Proctor 4368. 21 Erhard Eatdolt. Venice, 1483 86 The Chronicles of Eusebius. Hain *6717. Proctor 4390. 22 Franz Eenner. Venice, 1472 89 Caracciolus : Quadragesimale de penitentia. Hain *4427. Proctor 4154. 7 Facsimiles Plate Page 23 Franz Renner. Venice, 1478 91 Johannes de Sacrobosco: Spheera Mundi. Hain *14108. Proctor 4175. 24 Jacob Rubens. Venice, 1474 93 Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Hain *8469. Proctor 4236. 25 Baptista de Tortis. Venice, 1483 95 Silius Italicus: Punica. Hain *14739. Proctor 4619. 26 Bartholomew de Zanis. Venice, 1496 .... 97 Plutarch's Lives. Hain *13130. Proctor 5335. Portrait of Aldus Manutius 100 From Firmin-Didot's Aide Manuce et I'Hell^nisme h Venise. Aldus Manutius. Venice, 1495 lOl Greek type from the Works of Aristotle. Hain *1657. Proctor 5547. Imprint of Bartholomew Trot 108 27 Aldus Manutius. Venice, 1502 109 statins, cum Orthographia et Flexus Dictionum Graecarum. Brunet, V, col. 512. Small Greek Tjrpe of Statins of 1502 . . . . in Woodcut of Hypnerotomachia of 1499 ... 112 8 Facsimiles Page Device of Aldus as shown in Statins of 1502 . 113 Portrait of Panl Manntius 114 From Renouard's Annales de I'lmprimerie des Aide. 28 Paul Manutius. Venice, 1566 115 Preface to Orthographise Ratio ab Aldo Manutio, etc. Brunet, III, col. 1384. 29 John E'umeister. Foligno, 1470 116 Aretinus: de Bello Italico. Hain 1558. Proctor 5721. From. Hawkins's Titles of tlie First Books from the Earliest Presses. 30 Sixtus Eiessinger. I^aples, 1471 (?) us Plialaridls Epistolse. Hain 12883. 31 Antonio Miscomini. Florence, c, 1483 ... 120 S. Agostino: de la Citt^ di Deo. Hain *2071. Proctor 6145. 32 Antonio Zarotto. Milan, 1481 122 Aeneas Sylvius: de Conventn Mantuano. Hain *169. Proctor 5809. 33 Filippo de Lavagna. Milan, c. 1476 125 Eusebius, annotated by Hieronymus. Hain 6716. Proctor 5851. 34 The Eipoli Press. Florence, 1477 126 S. Antoninus: Confessionale Volgare. Hain 1221. Proctor 6095. 35 Caligula Bazalerio. Bologna, 1498 129 Statuta et Decreta Communis Genuae. Hain *15007. Proctor 6619. 9 Facsimiles Plate Page 36 Ulric Gering. Paris, 1483 130 Postils of Nicolas de Lyra on tlie Psalter. Ham 10378. Proctor 7868. 37 Claude Garamond. Paris, c. 1520 135 Roman and Italic letter. Bastard title in Statins of 1502 137 Iraprint at end of Statins of 1502 137 38 Christopher Froschover. Znrich, 1543 .... 139 Biblia Sacrosancta. Copinger, p. 308. Livy. Brunet, III, col. 1107. 40 Presswork and Composition as done in 1520 . 189 Device of Jodocus Badius of Paris. Presswork and Composition as done in 1564 . 189 From Jost Amman's Book of Trades. Early Inking Balls 189 A playing card of the sixteenth century, from Chatto. 41 Unidentified Printer at Lyons, 1499 .... 195 The Dance of Death. 39 Daniel Elzevir. Amsterdam, 1678 142 PREFACE Early types can be examined to best advantage in early books, where they present many characteristic adjuncts in the ink, paper, and impression given to them on publication. Yet readers find the study of old types really difficult. Old books printed with these early types are seldom seen outside of large libraries, and even there a book most desired may not be found, nor may two or more books showing the differ- ent styles of notable py^inters be readily compared. Facsimiles of early types, as made by the bibliographers of the eighteenth century and even later, are often unsatis- factory. They usually appear in the form of detached lines or short paragraphs that have been traced by hand on trans- parent paper and transferred to blocks of wood or plates of copper. The competent engravers of these tracings have not always been happy in making acceptable counterfeits. The reader has had to wait for the, combination of photoyraphy with chemical engraving before a printing surface could be produced that would be fairly trustworthy. Facsimiles of early types drawn and engraved by hand and printed on stone or copper lack many of the typographic mannerisms that can be produced only from a printing surface in relief. Even when most carefully engraved, detached lines or slwrt para- graphs are scant and unsatisfactory. 11 Preface The facsimiles usually attempted are those of types from famx)us printers^ which often lead a hasty readier to unsafe conclusions. There were many able printers in Italy dur- iny the fifteenth century, yet the Roman type of Jenson, in one face only, has been exhibited for many years as the true model of yood form. Duriny this period types of merit were made by Hahn, Herolt, Miscomini, Ratdolt, and Renner, but their merits have been neylected and not acknowledyed. There were also unskilled printers. To correctly understand the peculiar typoyraphy of the time the facsimiles of amateurs as well as those of famous printers are really needed. To shjow old types properly it seems necessary to present them of the exact size of the oriyinals and with the yenerous maryin that was then custoinary. The full-paye facsimiles here shown are not hackneyed as illustrations; nearly all of them have been photo-enyraved direct from old books, mainly in the collectums of the writer and of fellow-members of the Grolier Club, and are here reprinted for the first time. Types of famous books only have not been preferred; illustrations have been selected to show the different faces of Roman type more or less acceptable to early Italian book buyers. That they are of unequal merit is to be expected, but they are of value as evidences of the slow improvement of type-foundiny and of frequent chanyes in methods of composition and in theplan- niny and makiny of books. To these facsimiles have been added brief notices of the service rendered by their printers. Explanatio7i has also been attempted of sotne of the peculiar- ities in old paper, composition, and presswork. 12 INTRODUCTION As a rule we should go to tlie old printers not so much, for models to be slavishly followed as for ideas which can he adopted and improved hy modern appliances and modern skill. POLLARD. NOTABLE PRINTERS OF ITALY DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY INTRODUCTION 4 PRINTED book of the fifteenth century, intelligently /A planned and put together, has mechanical merits JL that command respect even when its subject-matter is of small interest. Its paper, rarely harmed by time, is white and clear, seldom thick, but smooth and strong; its margins are usually ample, with a generous provision of white space for the subsequent insertion of the initials and borders of the illuminators, or the annotations of a studious or critical reader; its text- types, of twenty- three capital and twenty-four lower-case letters, larger than those of the ordinary modern book, are more easily discerned, and show a visible lane of relieving white space between lines. It has the mannerisms of its own time in abbreviations, thin spacing between words, and compact composition, but it does not annoy the reader with profligate use of Italic, small capitals, and types of display. 15 Standards of valm are capricmis An early binding of large size fairly represents simplicity with dignity. At first glance it shows workmanship made for use more than for show. The tall folio was bound in boards of wood covered with tooled or stamped calf, fastened with thongs of leather or clasps of bronze; the prayer-book or classic text of small leaf was cased in vellum or pigskin and tied with tapes; but strong sewing and honest work- manship are as noticeable in books of small as of large size. A modern cloth-bound book of large edition that has been com- mercially made at a competitive rate will suffer in comparison with the old book that has been separately bound to order. The bibliophile has strong binding to add to other reasons in his preference for old books, but binding and even illus- trations of high merit are adjuncts only. To most readers paper and binding are but vehicles that bear the more val- ued burden of the author's thoughts expressed in printing types. The first purpose of the book is to be read; it was not made to be shown or sold as an exhibit of skill in the crafts of paper-making, type-founding, engraving, or bind- ing. Print occupies the largest part of the space and con- sequently receives the closest scrutiny; as a rule the type of every book receives the first consideration. Other standards are frequently used for adjudging value. Fifteenth-century books may be prized for more than plain print or honest workmanship. Rarity is always important. To some collectors it is a great pleasure to be the owner of the only known copy of a book of celebrity. A first edition is of more value than a second, even if the later edition has been made accurate with needed corrections. The book- seller's phrases of "limited edition," "scarce," "rare," "nni(|ue," indicate the scale of gradually increasing prices, largely governed by priority. IG Mannerisms make early books attractive Books may undergo some unexpected reverses. When new, adapted in manner and matter to popular taste, they meet ready sale and a fair appreciation ; hut when, to the readers of the next century, they hecome old-fashioned as to type and form, order is often given to depose them from the shelves they have encumhered, and to send them to dealers in second-hand books who may sell them for small sums. Most hooks of celehrity have suffered this fate. Copies of good works from famous printing houses have appealed from street book- stalls to passers-by, often in vain, for a purchaser who would pay but a small portion of the first price. At long intervals a curious book buyer may discover in an un- expected place a book of great merit at low price, and his good luck as its purchaser may stimulate another buyer to search for other lost children of literature. It follows that old books of merit have been slowly but steadily increasing in value. ^ Conformity to modern notions about the arrangement of types is never expected by the collector. Lines of type may be thin spaced to indistinctness, paragraphs welded together in confusion, words and phrases abbreviated unin- teUigibly, punctuation neglected, and capital letters used without system; but these eccentricities do not hurt but help the attractiveness of the old book. When it is of a ' A rare copy of the Bible of Forty-two rated so high. The Lactautius of Sweinheim Lines,onvelhim in tliree volumes folio, vahied and Pannartz, the first book printed in by its late owner at $25,000, is now in the Eoman type, Subiaco, 1465, was sold at library of Eobert Hoe. The Psalter of 1457 auction, in 1891, for $540; the Virgil of was recently priced by a London bookseller Aldus, Venice, 1501, in 1888, for £145; at £5000. A First Folio of Shakspere sold at the Homer of Florence, 1488, in 1908, for auction in London early in 1907 for £3600, $330. A very high price for an early Italian the Third Folio for £1550. Caxton's Dictes book is that of the Decameron of Valdarfer, and Sayinges of Philosophers was sold in 1471, which was sold at London, in 1812, 1897 for £1320, and an imperfect copy of for £2260, the buyer believing that it was his Golden Legend for £465. Books from the only surviving copy of the proscribed early printing houses of Italy have not been edition. 17 4f Black-lette7' rarely selected for modern books notable edition, or bears the imprint of a famous printer, eccentricities are disregarded. The buyer expects to find in his prized old book all the mannerisms of its own time. He does not read it for instruction or amusement, or even consult it as a reference book of final authority when a modern edition of the same book is at hand, for he may have doubts of the sagacity of the earlier editor and of the accuracy of a text that has since received wise correction. Faults of many kinds must be tolerated, but with all their faults incunabula are always precious ; they mark the evolu- tion from old to new methods of book-making, and for that reason, if for no other, they receive respect and even a qualified reverence. Respect has not always been wisely bestowed. Praise fairly due to some early books has been conceded unwisely to too many. Eulogies of the general superiority of fif- teenth-century typography, written by critics a long time afterward when the printing of the seventeenth century was in its lowest estate, were justifiable then but are not warrantable now. An old book may be highly esteemed for its age and rarity, for its quaint mannerisms or its associa- tion with a famous editor, printer, binder, or owner; but these peculiarities need not invest it with a sacredness that puts it beyond examination and comparison. The reading world of this century has its own standard of fair workman- ship in printing, by which it judges the old as well as the new. The new too often suffers by comparison, but the old is not always faultless. Facsimiles of early books in Black-letter need not here be considered, for that form of type is not now used for texts. The types of the Bible of Forty-two Lines, usually accepted as the first book printed by Gutenberg and sometimes oftered 18 Roman preferred to any other style as a model of stately form, are now out of date and seldom used even in Germany as text-types for a modern book. Fraktur is the name of the style of face now preferred in that country for the ordinary book or newspaper, but the book of science or scholarship is oftener in Roman letter. An Ameri- can or English pubHsher of the present day will occasionally decide to use the form of Black-letter known as Old English for a prayer-book or work of a kindred ecclesiastical nature, or for a medieval reprint, but he will never select it for the text of a popular book on a modern subject. Pointed Black- letter is, however, not entirely obsolete, for it is still made by the type-founders of Europe and America in many styles, but it finds its chief employment in job-printing for occasions of ceremony, where its formal and dignified appear- ance is appropriate. Black-letter was a preferred type not only in Germany but in Holland, England, France, and Spain for nearly a century after the invention of printing. Oaxton never used Roman letter, which was first introduced to England by WilHam Pinson in 1518. Ulric Gering, of Paris, was one of the few early printers of France who provided acceptable books in Roman ; but many of his books and those of rival printers in that city were in some form of Semigothic or Black-letter. For more than two hundred years attempts have been made, sometimes to simplify, sometimes to enlarge by dia- critical marks or other contrivances the usefulness of the Roman alphabet, but every novelty from the "real char- acter" of Bishop Wilkins to the angular "visual alphabet" of a recent reformer has been rejected by the book buyer. Our Roman alphabet has admitted defects, but printing has made change difficult and almost impossible. Equally offen- sive have been strivings to improve letters with ornament. 19 Roman types in Germany before 1464 Roman types, but of a crude form, appeared in Germany almost as early as at Subiaco and Rome. Proctor specifies the written date of 1464 affixed by an illuminator to his copy of a Durandus printed in Roman type, by the so-called R printer of Strasburg, whose twenty- six books (all without printed date) have been the occasion of much controversy among bibliographers. By reason of some mannerisms of form in the types of other printers, it has been claimed that some of the more eminent printers of Italy may have been associates or pupils of this unnamed R printer whose face of Roman type is here facsimiled. W^^^Icut narratur in Hfloria trlptita; Iibro prim^ ^^^^V^Conftantinus facfluscriftianus.'cultum di' V 111^ uinumintantumdilexitQp tabernaculum ad iftar ccdeHe facilum fecum deferri lubebat . Cui facer dotes 5C miniftn ecclefie afllftebant : prccibufcj intcn detant. Komanorfi^ diuerfc cobortes cms exeitipio Similiter fcceirut .varium tame diem (ecundum diucr fas opiniones clegerfit. Vnde facerdotes 8< diaconi do minicam diem colucrut. Alii vero fenam fextam pre tulcrunt .qa dominus m ca pafTus eft .Vnde apud Ro tnanosferiafcxtaprius celcbrabatur. nec rationabili The R Printer. Strasburg, 1465-70 From his edition of the Sophologium 14J-point That this Roman type was not approved by the ordinary German book buyer may be inferred from the R printer's sub- sequent preference for Semigothic type. HostiHty to the simple forms of Roman letter was widespread; the angular lower-case and the fantastic capital have ever since retained their preeminence in German print. There were, however, several German printers before the year 1500 who occasion- ally affixed Roman capitals to a Semigothic lower-case. 20 EARLY ITALIAN BOOKS To study the best forms of early Roman letter the books of ItaKan printers need the closest examination. Proctor records the names of a large number of printers in different cities, towns, and monasteries of Italy before the year 1500, and has identified about seventeen hundred distinct faces and bodies of Roman form. In the facsimiles that follow many faces or styles appear, some from notable and some from petty printers. They show a remarkable zeal in typog- raphy and a general conformity to the old Roman model and to the Caroline minuscule then generally accepted for its mated lower-case. Roman characters are to be found in greatest variety and of most pleasing form in books written or printed in Italy before the year 1500. In no other country were clerkly crafts that contribute to the making of books more dili- gently practised or held in higher esteem. Copyists of aU grades from the plain scribe to the expert calligrapher, as well as illuminators, miniaturists, designers, and decorative bookbinders, there found their highest appreciation. Books were made in large quantity, in many sizes, and at various prices to meet the varying demands of poor and rich. The cheaper forms have been destroyed; those that have most celebrity and now survive are mainly on large paper or on fine vellum. Early books were strangely unlike: choir books, huge in form and of heavy weight, written upon the skins of large sheep or calves, covered with large square-headed notes of music to be easily read at a distance; classical and church 21 Old books that survive are usually of merit literature usually appeared in the form of portly folios with covers of oak, studded with bosses of brass ; breviaries and manuals of devotion contained leaves of the thinnest vellum filled with minute lettering as distinct as that of fine modern print, bound in tooled leather, in velvet, or in silver covers that had been decorated with semi-precious stones. Most ad- mirable for thoroughness of workmanship were the breviaries made as gifts for personal use, for many contained the designs of eminent artists and were prodigally illuminated on every leaf with gold and harmonious color. A collection of neatly written and sumptuously bound books was regarded during this period as one of the more desirable possessions of the man who wished to be rated as a collector of discernment or as a man of education and good taste. Books written on paper were always abundant, for schools were many, and Italy was then making papers of excellence at relatively moderate price; but books of paper, not made for critical collectors, were for poor scholars and the larger number of general readers. Few of the written and printed books of small size, cheaply made for the needs of young scholars and poor buyers, are in existence now, for they were gradually thumbed to rags by persistent handling, and for that shabbiness have been kept out of neat collections, but enough have survived to indicate the existence of the larger number destroyed. The old books that are now made to serve for comparison with new books are of the better class. Old printed books of celebrity are usually on large leaves, and have broad margins, supplemented with a few gaps of white space at chapter breaks for the futm-e insertion of hand-painted initials. Provision was seldom made in Italy for added borders in the margin. The sizes preferred ranged from the large folio of 10x16 to the small quarto about 22 Early printers avoided profuse decoration 6x8 inclies. The development of book printing had to wait for a fuller development of paper-making and press building; sheets of paper in size larger than 16x21 inches were not common. No press had then been constructed that would print at one pull more than one page of a large foKo. Small sizes were tolerated for school-books and prayer-books, but the collector who intended to invest his shelves with proper dignity preferred the large book. Some decoration seems to have been desired by publishers. The copyist who wrote only with plain letters expected that his handwritten work afterward would be generously orna- mented by a following caUigrapher or miniaturist, and it was largely for the latter' s needs as well as for those of the schol- arly annotator that he gave broad margins to every page. The first type-printed books were intended to be copies of the more useful features only of manuscript books. Decora- tions that had been made in the manuscript by artist and illuminator were wisely put aside by the first printers as be- yond imitation. Not all sm*viving printed books have re- ceived the decorative initials that were often desired by the printer or publisher ; but even when they come to us without decoration or unprovided with blank spaces for intended initials or border, they are more pleasing than other books of a similar class that have been hastily treated by unskilled decorators or miniaturists, who attempted ornament beyond their ability. Unpretending print is never improved by inappropriate or tasteless ornament. The skill of the expert Italian copyist is fairly shown in the facsimile that follows (plate 1), of a page fi-om a manuscript of one hundred and forty leaves on vellum, by an unknown penman and illuminator, of the De Oratore of Cicero. Every page shows the same degree of painstaking care, and the 23 Beautiful penmanship of Italian copyists more important breaks in the discourse have graceM initial letters in many colors. A closer examination of some of the old methods of manuscript book-makers may be of service. Here one may begin to trace the early methods of forming letters that were afterward copied by the makers of types; round letters and low, like a and e, are unusually low and small; descending letters, like p and have noticeable pro- traction. This treatment compelled the provision of a wide lane of white space between lines that seems almost twice the height of the round letters. Ascending letters, like b and d, are also protracted. The capital letters are much like the series we now call small capitals; when used as initials for lines of poetry they were separated by a space and kept at a distance fi'om the lower-case letters that follow. This aloofness of initial capital letters in early Italian poetry was maintained by Aldus Manutius and is not yet entirely out of fashion in Italy. The remarkable legibility of the text does not entirely come from the uniformity of its alphabetical letters; it is largely aided by the broad lane of white space between the lines which gives a proper relief to the eye. Hyphens are not used for the division of words, nor are all lines spaced out to the right to uniform length and full width of the measure. The diphthongs and oe do not appear; but seme letters have finials to indicate abbrevia- tion. The vowel e occasionally has an attached flourish which may have been added as a grace, but not as an accent or for any other known reason. The compression and close fitting of the lower-case letters is as remarkable as is the reduced size of the capitals. The general effect of the page is that of extreme lightness and delicacy, yet the hair-lines of letters are short, hardly per- ceptible in the serifs, and mainly visible in finial decoration. 2i Plate 1 ^cv>ntm aud M-ihemnonum uerfamur ; A: id turn gmns omtorr reUtjuinfr; no complecrdr itjWs Itibm ' a-mpUu6;(]> (^^huic gmm' rei^'tujritum - & mwlmntx (liYpixtatxrni jfummm krminu -propc^oScnfu r m butum'txpetarm^ non abtnainatults twriietms pum ^ts cj; cloctnn^ quendam ordmem ptp^torutn • fed d cju^ quaTidatn aoepi mnrbrum lx)wtn elo^umdflfiTnojf & omTH jtatZ-prinapum (Itfputatume^er ucrfata.ncm cjd'illa ctmttmmm qu^gij^c^'dtcmdi amfuxs A da^te Tfs tritqucmnt.Sed c^iwnum itU pattarvt impmnptu cj; fint omnituft netj; w mterpretarion/mei aur oma tiuf expUcan, aut ^jUtous exi?nTm fofltnt • babi'g loanc ucnum mi fwxf . viz optnor • ut eomm cjuiinis fumma dicemlt U«5 A nofbris knntmbufi conceffa^eftr aiic^rtcattm grpcis amteb o m a av. V M iguur tteliementitif ittitcderetur'm ca. ufatn -prmotputn ccmfuI'Tlnltppus^'Dwftq: Tntututu* -pro fenatus axictoncatf^ fufcep tuf^wfrvngi um (lekiimncp ttulcretur'm/^ nuTO dia rruln tudorum tomanomm dic^ W$ . L . cmflTum cjuaft colhgmdi fm caula fc^ mtu/ca Unum amtwliVTc^ vcnitTetj; eodem foccmtn ctu/* qm fittlTr^Q^ Miitius dtcetatur. et.M Antonml^liomo <3c confJiorum tn r . P . fotuif . et fumma mm Craflfofa, miltantate'ctmiUTictus /Extcmnc auttm cam t^fo Cr4ffo adolefcmtef ctlhruft maxtmcfami&atts et ancjiubuft magiam turn fpcm maiores natu- dxgiita tift fuc coUocarat C Cottara cjiu Tnbtmatu :t L . peteW 6c t . sulpttius (^tu deinccps cum magUbatum pctim ru$ pucaba-tur Hi fnmo dirdettmponbtttilU* dcif mxucrfa . r p tjium ob catUam umcrant mwitu tntcr fe:' uft^ ad eyxmrm tcmpus dia ooUocuti ftmt <^uo tpi^ De Oratore of Cicero The manuscript of an unidentified scribe Description in note of the Sforziada A more satisfactory exhibit of the thoroughness of Italian skill in book-making arts is presented in the facsimile (plate 2) which shows the art of an unknown illuminator with the type work of the printer Antonio Zarotto of Milan/ The types of this book are readable, but not so graceful as the letters in the manuscript Cicero (plate 1). When this book was published in 1490 printing had been established in sixty-five places in Italy, and in some were two or more printers. The limitations of typography had already been clearly discerned. Decoration and color work had been abandoned to the miniaturists and calligraphers. Printers had practically agreed among themselves to make books that should be useful more than ornamental. They followed as closely as they could the established mannerisms of the copyists; they compacted their print with thin spacing and few paragraphs, discarded hyphens for broken words, and 'The title of the book is La Historia Probably it was carried to France when Louis delle cose facte dallo invictissimo Duca xii, on his expulsion of Ludovico from i\Ii- Francesco Sforza scripta in Latino da Ian, seized the Sforza library in the Castle of Giovanni Simonetta et tradocta in lingua Pavia in 1499 or 1500. It passed succes- Fiorentina da Christophoro Landino Fioren- sively into many hands and finally into the tino. Printed by Antonio Zarotto Par- library of Thomas Grenville, by whom it was mesano in Milano nelli anni del Signore bequeathed to the British Museum in 1846. MCCCCLXXXX. The copy of the Sfor- The portrait on the left, inscribed FEAN ziada from which this page was facsimiled [ciscus] SFOE[tia] VIC[ecomes] DVX is the Life of Francesco Sforza-Visconti, M[edio]L[an]i IIII, is that of Duke Fran- fourth Duke of Milan (1450-1466). It cesco, whose life is the subject of Simo- was translated into Italian by Cristoforo netta's work. The portrait on the right is Landino from the Latin of Giovanni Simo- that of l udovico il Moro. At the top of the netta, and published at Milan in 1490 — one page is the emblem of the Moor's head; at of three extant copies on vellum. It con- the bottom Ludovico's arms. The shield is sists of 208 leaves of the finest white velhim, supported by a fine group of amorini, some of 14 inches in height by 9f inches in width, whom are engaged in the children's games of The volume is in its original binding of "Hot Cockles" and "Buck! buck! how wooden boards covered with crimson velvet, many fingers do I hold up ? " with clasps and bosses of silver. The em- This illustration, strictly accurate as to blems fastened on the cover show that the form, is imperfectly presented in black ink; book from which this copy was taken origi- the original design is enriched with many nally belonged to Ludovico il Moro, who at colors. From Illuminated IManuscripts of the time it was printed, although virtual ruler the British Museum, folio, 1899 - 1903. It of Milan, had not yet actually succeeded his is also shown in Kugler, Handbook of Paint- nephew Duke Gian Galeazzo (1476- 1494). ing, Italian Schools, 1887, ii, p. 385. 26 Plate 2 iLIBRO PRIMO DELLA HISTORIA DELLE COSE FACTE DAI LO {IN VICTISSIMO DVCA FRANCESCO 5FORZA SCRIPTA IN LA jTINODA GIOVANNI SIMONETTA ET TRADOCTA IN LIN iGVA FIQRENTINA DACH^ ^OPHORQ LANDINQ F IORFM E TEMPI CHE LA REcfNA GIOVANNa SE jconda figliuola di Carlo R e regnaua:perche era f uc ceduranel regno Neapolitanoa Latiflao Re fuo fra |tello cicjuale parti di uita fanza figliuoh.-AIphonfo jRe daragonacon grande armata mouendo di Cata llogna uenne m Siciha : Ifola di fuo Impeno.La cut luenutaexcitoglthuominidel Neapolirano regno a h R I i\J R y^Ai u a r u fauoru&a diucrfi configliia: non con ptccoli mouimenti di cjuci regnorlmpero che Giouana Regina per molri &uaru fuoi impudichi anion era caduia m foma infamia.Et defperandofi che lei femina potefTi adempiere loflicio del 9.t:8c adminirtrare tanto regno.fece a femarito lacopodiNerbonaContedi Marcia:elqualeper nobilita di fan guc:& belleza di corpo:ne meno per uirru era tra Principi di Francia excel Icntc . Ma accorgendori in breue che quelle dcfideraua pm efTerc Re : che marito:8ifc|uella non molro ftimaua:mono da fern mile (euita lo rifiuto: e ch 1 I mN 0 r q K s t u X 1 c b e 1 F 9b T I CON O P q s T ixyi ah c J e f I I m Ji 0 ? q r- f TUX 1 CL b c d e r I L m N o P ^ rr x: ujQ cc 6 cdoe 1 i muno p qpRrsr u K b c d e f t m n 0 c\ r \ T u J. - a \ c e f g 1) 11 I m ti 0 p q tzf s t u X This table lias been compiled to illustrate the stages in tbe evolution of Latin minuscule. The alphabets are from the facsimiles of cardinal MSS. published by the Palseographical Society I Square Capitals. Sec. iv. St. Gall Virgil.— Pa/. Soc, pi. 208. II Rustic Capitals. Sec. iii. Vatican Virgil, "Codex Romanus." Pal. Soc, pi. 113. III Early Roman Uncial. Sec. iii. Vati- can palimpsest Cicero. Pal. Soc, pi. 160. IV Late Roman Uncial. Sec. vii. "St. Augustine's Gospels," at Corpus Ch. Coll.— Pa/. Soc, pi. 33. From Tlie Alpliabet, an Account of tlie Origin and Development of Letters, by Isaac Taylor, M.A., LL.D., 8vo, London, 1883, vol. ii, p. 165. 31 V Gallican Cursive. Sec. vi. Paris Avitus papyrus. — Pal. Soc, pi. 68. VI Early Gallican Uncial. Sec. v. Hilary Codex at Rome. — Pal. Soc.,]^\. 136. VII Irish Uncial. Sec. vii. "Book of Kells" at Dublin.— Pa/. Soc, pi. 56. VIII Caroline Minuscule. Sec. ix. Bou- logne Augustine.— Pa/. Soc, pi. 45. IX Early Black-letter. Sec. xiii. Abbot Robert's Bible in British Museum. Pal. Soc, pi. 73. White-letter is resisted hy Black-letter for securing the adoption of his reforms. . . . Owing to its manifold excellencies, such as the rapidity with which it could be written, the ease with which it could be read, and economy of parchment, the Caroline minuscule, as it is usually called, grew rapidly in favor, and being diffused by Alcuin's pupils over Europe displaced the older majus- cule scripts — the monastic Uncials as well as the secular Cursives." The Caroline minuscules, the models for modern Roman lower-case, were gradually accepted as an improved form by the copyists of southern Europe. As a new style of writing it was then known as the White-letter, to differentiate it from the Black-letter which had been used for some centu- ries as the proper letter for books of devotion. The schol- ars of Italy who aided in the revival of classic literature during the period now known as the Renaissance, preferred the White-letter, but they incurred some ecclesiastical hos- tility as practical revivers of classic paganism. The devout of all countries, and especially of Germany, looked askant on books in White-letter as possibly insidious conveyors of teachings that savored of infidelity. Prejudice against the newer style was strongest with the imperfectly educated, whose too scant familiarity with letters had been acquired through the reading of books of devotion appropriately writ- ten in Black-letter characters that added a proper degree of solemnity and gloominess to the page. Roman capitals were occasionally used with Black-letter minuscules by German copyists, as alternates to the more irregular initial letters of Gothic form, but the simple forms were not entirely pleasing to the German reader. The texts of the Latin authors, printed entirely in Roman letter, 32 Printing brought to Italy by Germans had proved the unsuccessful venture of a German pubhsher before the sixteenth century. Black-letter forms were pre- ferred for ordinary books in every part of northern Europe for nearly a century after the invention of printing. Early printing types of Roman form are to be found in greatest variety and of most merit in the books of the first Italian printers ; but their early practice of typography was not the spontaneous outgrowth of Italian^ art and skill. Printing was there introduced by Germans, who are sup- posed to have abandoned Mainz after its sacking by the Swedes in 1462, and its printers had been dispersed in different directions. Many went to Italy. Numeister, a workman of Gutenberg, whose name appears in his suit at law with Fust, was a master printer at Foligno in 1470. John Peter of Mainz was a type-maker at Florence in 1472. The German names of Schott and Schoeffer of Mainz appear in some Italian lists of printers. Mainz did not furnish all the teachers of typography to Italy. Gutenberg had practised printing at Strasburg be- fore he went to Mainz. Mentel and Eggestein of Strasburg were prosperous printers at some early unfixed date. So was the R printer now supposed to have been an important typographer in Strasbm'g. Madden suggests that it may have been from these and other printing houses that Jenson and other printers who introduced printing in Italy received instruction in typography. ^ There is a tradition that Pamfilo Cas- they were associated. The union of German taldi of Feltre, Italy, received the suggestion skill and experience in typography with of printing from an early inspection of a Italian refinements and taste in paper-mak- book made by Fust, but there is now no ing, wood-engraving, and bookbinding was relic of Castaldi's experimental work and of mutual benefit in the production of the the story is generally discredited. The best books. For about fifty years the typog- Italian names in the lists of early printers raphy of Italy was esteemed as of more of Venice are rated as the partners of or beauty and accuracy than printing from any helpers to the German workmen with whom other part of Europe. 33 Printing types rapidly made in Italy Grerman printers went to Italy in the belief that there they would find financial helpers and a ready sale for their workmanship. It was supposed by them and the public that the profit to be had from typography must be large; but this assumption was coupled with small experience and much real ignorance concerning the delays and expenses of the business. Apparently the printers had little difficulty in finding Italian capitalists who would advance the money needed. It was generally believed that the cost of a printed book would be much less than that of the cheapest manuscript copy, and that the print would be sure of meeting a pur- chaser if it were offered at a paying but reduced price. Preliminary preparations were not adequately considered. Types had to be designed and cut and the cases planned to make types accessible; presses must be constructed and many minor appurtenances provided for the despatch of work. As a rule each printer had to attend personally to planning and to most of the construction. The first step was type -making, and that began in every direction with enthusiasm. Before the year 1500 printing had been es- tablished in more than seventy-three Italian towns or cities. Proctor has identified sixteen hundred and eighty distinct faces — Roman, Gothic, Semiroman, and Semigothic— pro- duced during this brief period. This number does not include types from unknown printers and unidentified places. There are also evidences of the sale or transfer of types or matrices from one printer to another, but as a rule these distinct faces of type represent the workmanship of the printer who prepared them for his own books. With the Roman model and the OaroHne minuscule that had been selected as its alternate, there was a general 34 Om disadvantage of Roman type conformity to a recognized and established standard of form. Then, as now, type-founders made their new type faces thin or broad, small or large, but they made few experiments in eccentricity. Types were readable, wherever made. The arts of designing, sculpture, and painting were then highly developed, but it is not known that any artist attempted any important reconstruction of the alphabet. Printers of Germany who carried the practice of their art to Italy during the latter part of the fifteenth century took with them an inherited preference for Black-letter, but soon discovered that texts in Roman lower-case were more acceptable to Italian buyers of fine or sumptuous books. Conforming to this taste, they modeled the types about to be made upon the lettering of approved Italian manuscripts. The writing of manuscripts in a Roman character taken for copy was usually of large size and of thin structural lines, but of broad shape, round, clear, legible, with open spaces between the stems of each letter and often with a wide space between the lines of reading matter. Lightness and openness gave attractiveness to the page, but this pleas- ing feature in a manuscript proved a disadvantage to the printer. Openness in print was wasteful of paper. A text in Roman lower-case often occupied in type about twice as much space as it would have occupied in the customary Black-letter. Large type permitted fewer lines to the page and compelled the selection of larger leaves and often the making of books that must be thicker or in two volumes. To reproduce desired lettering in type of full size and fair form, the letters often had to be cut for casting in type on the large body of 16 -point. The grand book printed from large types was unavoidably of greater cost, and seemed to warrant a grand price. 35 Unseen disadvantages in Roman type There are critics of printing who commend the Roman types first made in Italy as models of good form, and claim that the inferiority of our modern print is largely due to a departure from the early standards. This statement needs the examination and comparison of many styles. There is no agreement among modern readers as to the form of type for a faultless standard. Tastes differ. Types of Jenson receive the largest number of admirers, but they have never been strictly reproduced by any reformer of typography. Some of Jenson' s mannerisms are obsolete, while the less valued types of Ratdolt, Renner, and Garamond have some peculiarities that are still repeated by all type-founders. A comparison of early types will show that it is not possible to select the product of any printer as the one that combines all features of merit. Even between the years 1470 and 1496 Italian types suffered some changes. A few came fi'om the caprices of their designers, but more are due to changed conditions in other arts that contribute to type- making and to the necessity of adapting form as well as size to meet the needs of book buyers. Types were made then as they are now to be adapted to paper, presses, ink, and the convenience of the reader. Different sizes and faces have to be provided now for newspaper advertise- ments, catalogues of merchandise, and general job -printing, as well as for books of reference that require peculiar signs or symbols, and for pocket editions of the Bible and the classics. Books so printed must differ in size and in cost, but their types are unwisely classified wben dogmatically called good or bad. It is not possible to have all types con- form to an inflexible standard. The type that serves its purpose and is easily readable should be an acceptable type. 36 TYPES OF ROME SWEINHEIM AND PANNARTZ Roman lower-case characters are supposed to have been first cast in types about the year 1464, at the monastery of Subiaco, near Rome, by two German printers, Conrad Sweinheim and Arnold Pannartz, who had been invited there by its ecclesiastics to practise the art of printing. Their first production was three hundred copies of a child's Latin grammar known as the Donatus, of which one copy only is now known. The book in Roman type generally accepted as second^ in order of time but first in importance is the Lactantius of 1465. This new face shows the unconscious leaning of its designer toward Black-letter mannerisms in the compression, blackness, and modified angularity of its letters. The punches or model letters were engraved neatly, and the fitting up of the matrices to the mold for the even lining of letters seems the work of an expert, who assembled them with remarkable closeness. The engraver's work on the capital letters is not so clever ; to modern readers they seem inharmonious, uncouth, and sprawling. The four lines of careless writing at the head of this facsimile and the painted initial letter show that even then the printers received oc- casional help from penmen. A few words of Greek in the copy were engraved. The paper of this book is hard and ' The distinction of priority in Italian equipment for their printing house not long books, according to Madden, rightfully be- after the dispersion of printers from Mainz longs to the De Oratore of Cicero, which pos- in 1462. There is a possible priority for sibly preceded the Lactantius a few weeks. Germany. The facsimile of the Sophologium See Lettres d'un Bibliographe, vol. iv, p. 480. on page 20 shows that Eoman types were Sweinheim and Pannartz probably began the used in Strasburg as well as at Subiaco. 37 The mannerisms of the Ladantius strong and not too deeply indented by the impression of types. There are bibliographers who praise the presswork for the dense blackness of its ink, but blackness is variable in different copies of the book; in some there are lines and pages too black from types choked with excess of ink. The types of this Lactantius were cast on a body a trifle smaller than 17 points of the American measurement.^ The round or low letters like a, m, e, seem too low in height, for they are no taller than similar letters now made for a bold-faced Roman on 12 -point body. They occupied the middle of the 17-point body, leaving blank spaces at head and foot that produced in lines of composed type the lanes of white blank that give proper relief to the type and pro- mote legibility. The protractions given to ascending and descending letters like b and p are imitations of manuscript mannerisms then esteemed graces, as has already been shown in the facsimile of the manuscript De Oratore of Cicero (plate 1), and are even now maintained in ordinary current penmanship. These protracted letters on bodies of type proved an annoyance to the early printers when they dimin- ished the number of lines to the page, for they increased the bulk and cost of a proposed book. The names of Sweinheim and Pannartz do not appear in the colophons of the Lactantius or Cicero, as had been the custom of early copyists. The expense of producing these books had been borne by the monastery ; they were not the mercantile ventures of the printers, and were not regularly published by them for sale by the bookselling trade. ' The American point or unit of measure Didot system, is a trifle larger, but it does is not based on an unchangeable standard ; not allow acceptable subdivisions of sizes for it is about one seventy-second of an inch. It the regular type bodies in use by American is now used by American and English type- printers and for that reason was put aside, founders as the most satisfactory unit for The German point approximates that of grading sizes. The French point, by the France. 38 Plate 3 A6H0 « excellOT igemo Wi quom fc doclrmf pf - mtus dcdidiffent : erraaac uago uiam colloquend^ immortaliotis oftederec . Veru quoma pauci utun t hoc celcfU beneficio ac munere : quod obuoluta m obfcuro ueritas lacer ; eaq^ uel concemtui docHs efl: : quia ido^ nds afTercoribus eget : uel odio idocKs ob mfica fibi aufteritace : qua naw bommum prodiuis m uicia pad nonpoceft : Ham quia uirmnbus amari^ hido pmixta e : uitia uero uoluptare condita func : ilia oifenfi :bac delmid : fcruncur m pcepf : ac bono}/: Ipede falfi mala ^ bonis ampIeclunr.Succur ' redu cf fc bis erroribus credidi uc ec docli ad uera lapiendam diriganc : ef mdocB ad uera rdigione.Que prof effio mulco melior : unlior : gloriofior : pucanda eft q ilia omroria m qua diu uerfad : non ad uirtuce fed plane ad arguta malida iuuenes erudiebamuJu Multo qppe nuc recttus de pcepds Sweinheim and Pannartz. Subiaco, 1465 A page of the Lactantius from tiie library of Bobert Hoe Scant 17-point Early types not mechanically well made For more than four centuries type-founders have tried to improve the appearance of the old Roman alphabet. The names of Jenson, Renner, Ratdolt, Aldus, Garamond, Tory, the Stephens and the Elzevirs, Van Dijck, Didot, Caslon, and Bodoni are those of the masters that at once present themselves, but imitations of their faces are really attempted alterations and improvements. The style of Van Dijck, approved dm'ing the seventeenth century, was reformed by William Caslon in 1731, but before the year 1800 the Oaslon style was obsolete. In 1844 it was revived by Whittingham and still retains its old popularity. Few of the leading types were scientifically constructed. Early type-founders had no tools of precision, and no system for the graduating of sizes. Pressmen had to give to types unusual care to prevent their shallow counters from being choked by excessive ink. Many printers seemed indifferent to their neat construction. Types were not always even in the width of thick stroke nor in true alinement: the curved line was not always a true curve; the flat line not always truly straight; the requests for delicacy as in the hair-lines of copperplate printing seem to have been put aside as finical. The first type-founders preferred sturdy boldness. The only attempt known to me as a fair reproduction of the Lactantius face of type has been made by Mr. 0. H. St. J. Hornby of the Ashendene Press, who had the discern- ment to see in this type quaint and pleasing characteristics that had been somewhat obscm-ed by its generally over- colored presswork. With this face of letter, recut by Mr. Emery Walker of London, Mr. Hornby has produced several reprints of value, among them the Divine Comedy of Dante. No other type-founder or printer has faithfully copied this face or repeated its striking peculiarities. 40 Plate 4 Quell* amma Ussh cbe ba maggior pcna, Disse il Maestro, i Giucla Scariotto, Che il capo ba dentro, e fiior le gambe mena, Degli altiH due cb' banno il capo di sotto, Quei cbe pende dal nero ceFFo t Bruto : Vedi come si storce, ai non fa motto : E Paltro t Qssio, cbe par s\ membruto. AAa la notte risurge ; ed oramai E da partir, cbe tutto avem veduto. Com' a lui piacque, il collo gli awingbiai ; Ed ei prese di tempo acloto poste: E quando l^ali (uro aperte assai, Appigli6 s^ alle vellutc coste : Di vello in vello giii discese poscia Tra il folto pelo e le geUte croste. Quando noi (ummo la dove la coscia Si volge appunto in sul grosso dell' ancbe, Lo Duca con Fatica e con angoscia Volse la testa ov' egli avea le zancbe, Ed aggmppossi al pel come uom cbe sale, St cbe in inferno io credea tomar ancbe. A reproduction of the types of the Lactantius, from Mr. C. H. St. John Hornby's reprint of the Inferno of Dante 17-point Inferiority of Sweinhdm and Pannartz^s second Roman type The book next printed by Sweinheim and Pannartz is St. Augustine's City of God (lib. xxii), which appeared in 1467. In its colophon neither the name of the monastery nor that of the printers appears. Whether the book was partly made at Subiaco and completed at Rome is an open ques- tion; but the type of the Lactantius soon went out of use. It had not been fully approved. While Sweinheim and Pannartz were at work at Subiaco in 1467, Ulric Hahn, a formidable rival, was establishing himself as a printer at Rome. Three years of practice at a lonely monastery in the mountains, more than a day's journey from Rome, had proved that Subiaco was not a desir- able place for making and selling large books in quantity. Sweinheim and Pannartz had other reasons for change. Ecclesiastical dignitaries of Rome had urged them to begin a more profitable practice of their art in the great city then full of books and with many ostensible patrons of education. The threatened competition of Ulric Hahn and their be- lated perception of the Italian dislike of Gothic somberness induced Sweinheim and Pannartz to make their next types more Roman in form, but the second types were not so symmetrical as the first. The new face showed grave im- perfections of proportion; its imperfect lining of letters indicated that the cutting and casting of types had been done hurriedly and possibly by inexperts. Their new types were of lighter face, round and slightly compressed, without the diphthongs and oe, but not entirely free from Gothic features. The characters were not drawn in true propor- tion and the matrices were not neatly fitted to the mold. The short final s was not engraved, the old form of long f appearing at the end as well as at the beginning of a word. The i is not dotted; the lower-case a is squat and of an 42 Plate 5 QVid tdcefdnimd' Qutd cogiwaonibuf eftua(? Quid non erumpifm uocem:cc mennf tuc exponif ardorem : ut aliquod ro[dnum capiaf.^ Hoc plane hoc eric quafi remcdmm quoddam egricudmiftue.Ti apcrco ore concepcu digeraffcelur. Nam ec ulcufcumfucric tumidum.-guiffuppuramm cuapordnfprenrac refrigeriu palTionu A-udicc nunc qui propeefbif; ecquilonge: qui amenrdeum: ec Ecclefie eiufgaudio congaudcnOec crifttae conlugccif: (icuc fcripcum efb. Gaud ere cum gaudenbunflerc cum flencibuf. Vofinqm appcllo: qui caricacem XpriOri uerillimam rennecif.ecnon fuper miquicacegaudeaf. fed pociurmgemifaaf. Aducrctce poaufuerba orifmei: ec an iniuOro ex dolore procedanctudicace:ec decccfli rcelerifqualicarem mecum pancer perborrecc. arum:tibi appro ximdre no borret' Aperi oculoOfi potcf.Erige Fronccm:fiaudef. Mique fand:o2f fiducialiter mtuere. Nonne wam Faciem confcientie commiHa: canq plumbum mclmanc: ec premunc' Nonnc tenebre ance oculofcuof:uc dura caligo uerfanmr 'Nonne cimor ec crcmor animSi tua: ec membra tua quafTabic' Si ergo bommefm carne confbitutoO ec illof: qui pro tua opmione laboranc ucrerif: multum audax mulcumq; cemeraria ef fi ce confciencia no tcrrec:uc fimulaca uirginicacc pucarcf ce ena dommum poHTc Fallere: qui dixic . Nil occulcum : quod non reueletur . Ec uof mquic Fecifbif m occulco . Ego Sweinheim and Pannartz. Rome, 1470 Hieronymi Epistolae 16-point Books published by Sweinheim and Pannartz unpleasing form; the capital letters have unusual width and are scraggy in combination. Some vowels carry accents, but there are not many abbreviations or logotypes. This renewed face did not meet with general approval. The Hieronymi Epistolse for which this type was designed was published in two bulky volumes of more than six hundred pages, 46 lines to the page, and each page of type is 6^ inches wide and 10^ inches tall. Foreseeing the bulk of the new work, the printers had the new face cast upon the smaller body of 16 points. At Rome, favored by the approval of the Pope, Sixtus IV, who frequently visited their printing house, as well as by volunteered offers of assistance from his librarian and other learned ecclesiastics, Sweinheim and Pannartz began the practice of book printing with lively enthusiasm, but it yielded to them more honor than profit. On the 20th of March, 1472, the Bishop of Aleria, their editor and corrector of the press, writing then in the names of Sweinheim and Pannartz, begged for them some financial assistance from the Pope. He said that the printers were in dire poverty through the great cost and slow sale of their work. Many books remained unsold; in seven years they had printed more than fifty works, of which some were very large, amounting to 11,475 volumes. The books selected for publication as specified in this petition were mostly in folio form, printed at high cost, to suit the taste of critical book buyers; their subject-matter did not invite the ordinary book buyer. The writings of classic authors had preference ; the names of Virgil, Cicero, Osesar, Strabo, Ovid, Pliny, Quintilian, Aulus Gellius, and Suetonius appear in the list presented to the Pope. Eccle- siastical literature was properly preserved in an edition of 44 Compeiitmn of copperplate engraving the Bible, and in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, Cyprian, St. Jerome, and Nicolas de Lyra. Books like these that could be relished only by the educated or devout must have been slow of sale in a city with many poor and illiterates. There was another hindrance. The competition of other printers had damaged sales. Ulric Hahn was not the only formidable rival ; a rapidly increasing number of printers in Rome, Venice, and other Italian cities were producing many books fi'om types of more pleasing form and at lower price. Editions of Sweinheim and Pannartz were advanced in the regular proportion of 275, 550, 825, and 1100 copies.^ Of the Bible 550 copies were printed. The only books of 1100 copies were the writings of St. Jerome and Nicolas de Lyra. As some of the works appeared in two or three editions the complaint of slow sale needs an added explana- tion, for the list of books unsold specifies reprints of the same work. That they had overprinted some books is evident; but a third edition would not have been printed if the first and second remained unsold. An unexpected rival made its appearance in the new art of copperplate printing which then was ushered in with the approval of Maso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence. It seemed a much simpler process than that of typography, for it brought the designer in more direct communication with the perfect print. By this process the designing of separate letters for movable type, type-casting, and type-setting were dispensed with. Copperplate prints were more generally pleasing; there was a sharpness and clearness of outline on their lettering, and a receding in perspective in the pictorial subjects, then unattainable from movable types or engraving in relief. Sweinheim, who is usually regarded as the designer ^ Bernard, De rOrigine et des Debuts de I'lniprimerie en Europe, vol. ii, pp. 152-155. 45 The last type of Arnold Pannartz and engraver of the punches for the types used by the firm, soon discerned the higher adaptabihty of the newer copper- plate process in the publishing of maps, a form of printing as yet not produced, which promised to be more salable than the classic and ecclesiastical works then made by all printers in excess. In 1472 Sweinheim was maturing plans for the publication of the Geography of Ptolemy, which he soon decided to engrave and print without the cooperation of Pannartz. Arnold Pannartz continued alone the typographic work of the partnership, printing with types only, in the house of Peter de Maximis. Although he printed later many books in folio or quarto of classic authors and religious teachers, he did not share with Sweinheim the full favor and coopera- tion of the ecclesiastics. He died soon after 1476. The facsimile of his new type on 15^-point body, as here shown in a page from his edition of St. ThomaeQuestiones de Veritate, Rome, 1476, is not a pleasing exhibit. The round letters of the lower-case are condensed and too low for their mated capitals on the body of 152-point. The smaller body and condensed shape were undoubtedly selected with an in- tent to get more lines and words on the page. His new type had many peculiarities; he retained the short final s, dis- carded in the second type of the partners, and he made some new forms of accented letters and abbreviations, but did not use the diphthongs ?e and o^. Ten years of practice had not improved his workmanship. In design, engraving, matrix- fitting, type-casting, and type-setting, this face of Pannartz shows no improvement; it is really a degradation from the standard of the Lactantius. With this book his activity ended. 46 Plate ESTIOcft e Vcntate* di rittJO queritquid I auc cp uei|; fit mmno tde ens . ug9 m li° I'olilo quloriraicic^Ticm eft id quod eft.fj id quod eil mbd eft mfi en g. erg o uc2|; ide figmFicac otno ^ ens.^Sed dice bat 9 uerum di ens Tunc idem fccundu fuppofica fed differunc fj*" voe^J^Con (r3«i9Cio cuiufiibct rei eft: id quod fig*' nificaJ per fuadifFinitione. fed idqcf eft afTignaii ab A.ug9. uc dtff nico ue rt quibufda alifs difFitiitoib? rephatia cum ergo f^"^ id quod eft conuemane uerum di ens uidec q* fine idem racioe ^EPrewquecuncj differunc rone its fe babenc q; unu eorum poc iceKtgi fiac alio, undeBoe? »m lib^ de cbdoma . dicicq? poc rocelligi deus tffk A. fepeJ^ paultf^ ^ mcelleAum bonieas etus.ens * aute nuUo mo poc rateldgi ft fe^ecur uerum«^a per boc mceldgif qd ueru j cfVg° ueru d^ens no differunc racione ^PreSi ueru no eft idem qd cn9 opj q> Cc entis difpofitio • fed no poteft ec d/poflcio totaliter coirwpcns atiaB fe>' queret eft ueru g** e non ens. ficut fe quic.e bomo mortuusg*^ non e borao. (imdicer non e difpoficio dimraues afs non fequereJ.e uerum ergo e.frcuc no fequit.c album f^™ dcncem g** eft aU buffl.fimilicer no c contrabens ucl fpeci ficans ens quia fie non couercerec cu ence ergo uerum di ens oio Tunc idem fiJVe.ilU quoru^ una dirpDficio eft e adem Tunc eade fed ueri dl cncis e ea^ dem difpoficio g° func eadera.dr cro^ m.ii.mccbapbudifpofitio rei in elle e Cciic fua difpoficio m ueruac£ ergo ue rum dl ens func oio idem.^Pre.qcffqj no func idem adquo mo differunc «fed uerum ec ens nullo mo differunc ^a differunc per ellencia cu ens jp clfenci am fua fic uerum. nec eciam dm ^ af s dfos quia 9 in aliquo gencre coue mrenc g° func oio idem. uel fi no func 010 idem op; 9 ueru^ aliquid fu^ ens addac fed mbil addic uerum fuper ens cum fic eCia ra plus 5 ens qd pacec p pbilofopbu« luumecbapbudicence ue rum dtffitnences dicimus elTe qd eft ac non cile qd non eft* &. fic ue 2^ icludic ens e(. non ens ergo uerum non addic fup en s • ^ fic ur 010 effe idc^ q? ens* llSed cocra nugdco e muctds repeco fi ergo ueru effec idem qd ens eff^ nu gacio cum dicic ens e ue rum qd fal^ fum c ergo non func idc.fll?re .ens dC bonu couercuncur fed ueru no couerct cur cu bono abquid em^ e uerum quod no eft bonu ficuc iftu for mean g^ nec uerum cff enCecbuertiu^p^iBocci? in (ibro deebdoma* m omnibus crea curis diuerfum e efie-a^ quod e.f^ ue^ rum feqmJ elfe rcru ergo ueru diucr^ fum e a quo eft in creacuns fed qd eft idem e 9 ens ergo uer um c reaturis eft diuerfum ab ence»(lJ?re»quecunq{ fe babenc uc priua dl pofterius og eS diuerfa fed ueru dl ens func b9modi « quia uc dici{ in lib^ de caufis* prima rcru creataru eft effe.fi^ comencator fu per eunde libru o!a alia dicunH per in formacione de ence dl fic func encepo fterio ra ergo ueru dl enf func diuerfa ()J?re.ea que dicunJ coiter de caufa dl cauGficis magis func unu m caufa ^ in Caufacis dl pcipue in deo ifta qcuor ens unit ueru dl bonu ficapproprianc 9eneadefienciS perctoeac.unum ad perfona pacrL6.uerit ad perfona^ filu \ Arnold Pannartz. Rome, 1476 St. Thomae Questiones de Veritate 15§-point Conrad Sweinlieim. Rome, 147S Ptolemy's G-eography. Edition of Peter cle Torre. Rome, l-iOO CONRAD SWEINHEIM In 1473 Conrad Sweinheim must have withdrawn from the partnership, for his name no longer appears on the books of Pannartz after this date. For the formidable task of engraving and publishing the old maps of the Geography of Ptolemy, for which he was well qualified, Sweinheim asso- ciated himself with his German friend Arnold Bucking. A translation in Latin had been provided by Jacobus Angelus Florentinus, as early as the fifteenth century. This newly printed book of maps, described by Brunet as "precious and rare," contains twenty- seven maps engraved on copper: one general map, ten maps for Europe, four for Africa, and twelve for Asia. The book had been planned on a grand scale, with maps to appear upon a wide leaf 22 x 16 inches. As it was im- practicable at that time to print copperplates of double size at one impression, it was necessary to have each map of full size divided to appear in two parts on two facing pages. Bach map was separately engraved and separately printed from two plates by separate impressions upon these sheets. The first half plate of each map had to be printed on the fourth page of a folded sheet, and the right half of the same map on the first page of another facing sheet. The preser- vation of visible connection between the two distinct prints was troublesome, but it was skilfully done in the bound book. When spread out the maps made an extension of nearly two feet, in an unhandy size and shape for binding and for the convenience of the student. 49 Neat work on the Geography of Ptolemy To make the separated sheets sufficiently secure required the folding of each sheet through its center, hy nesting one within another in quaternions or sections of foui' douhled leaves, which were afterward assembled and sewed by the hinder, so that each half map should properly face its mated half. The back or verso of each plate was unavoidably hlank. The proper putting together of these bisected maps was a difficult task. Engraved lines on these maps, fi'om a graver held and guided by the hand, are easily traceable in the outline of countries, rivers, mountains, seas, and marks of latitude and longitude, but they are not of a quality that calls for comment; it is the beauty and uniformity of the lettering in three distinct sizes of capitals which are used to give definite names to countries, cities, towns, rivers, seas, etc., that demands explanation. The three sizes of capital letters show an un- expected uniformity in each series, with remarkable graces of design that would not have heen produced if each letter had heen separately cut by the engraver. Sweinheim had profited by his punch-cutting experiences and had applied one of its processes to the forming of letters upon a plate. To prevent the repeated engraving of the same alphabetical letter he decided to cut each letter once only, but with more than ordinary care, on the end of a steel rod and to use this rod as a type-founder's punch. To form on the plate the word desired, the punch for each letter was separately selected, and each one was successively struck with a mallet and punched on the plate to the depth needed for the retention of printing ink. This treatment, opus mallei, an old process much approved by goldsmiths, gave to the letters of print absolute uniformity of face, with all the sharpness of the original engraving on the punch. These 50 Plate 8 loci's ncc flammastnunc uaporcs.nucfumos crunpat Exindedenic^ethne mentis p tot fe^ cula duratincedmm.Et ubiacriorafptramen ta cauernaru uetus mcubi't arenarum cumuli eriguntur Accedunt&perpetua fomenta in^ fula^ cohtum ueluti' I'pfi's undis alatur inccn^ dium.Ne<]^eni'm in ta angufti's tcrmis, ahteri durareptotfeculatantus ignis potuiflet^nif fiChumorisnutn'menti'saleretur Hmc igitur fabule fcillam SCcaribdem peperc hinc latrat? auditur.hincmoftri icrcdita fimulacra dum nauigantibusmagmsuerticibus pelagi defi'^ dentes cxten'tiilatrare putatmndas quas for^ bentis cftisuorago coIIidit.Eademcaufactia cthne montis pcrpetu os igncs facit^Na aqua rum illcconcutfus rapto fecum fpiritu i y mu profundum trahit:atc^ibifuffocatum ta diu tenet donee per fpiramenta terrc ditfufus nu** tn'menta ignis inccndat.Conftat autem ad cx emplum gehennc cm ignis perpetua inccndia fpirabuntadpunicndospeccatorcfquicrucia bunturmfecuIafeculo^Namficut I'fti mon tes tanta tcmporis diuturnitaccuf^ nunc fla^ miscxeftuann'buspcrlcucrant.ita ut nu^ cx tinguipoflint Sic iflc ignis gehennc ad cruci^ anda corpora damnacorum finem.niiquam habituruseft;* HOC OPVS PTHOLOMEI MEMO RABILECiVIDEMETINSIGNE EX ACTISSIMA DILIGENTIA CASTI GATVM IVCONDO QVODAMCA RACTERE IMPRESS VMFVIT ET COMPLETVMROME ANNO A NA TIVITATEDOMINLM.CCCC. LX^ XXX. DIE.IV.NOVEMBRIS. ARTE ACIMPENSISPETRI DETVRRE* Conrad Sweinlieim. Rome, 1478 Ptolemy's Geography. Edition of Peter de Torre. Rome, 1490 16-point Planning of the Geography of Ptolemy letters are of capital form only, but they show harmony with one another and a sense of carefully adjusted proportion much admired by all bibliographers. Bernard says that no capitals made by following typographers can compare with them for merit — not even those made by Nicolas Jenson. This edition of the Geography of Ptolemy has distinction as the first book of maps illustrated with prints from copper- plates; but Sweinheim did not live to complete his grand work, for he died before 1478, leaving his unfinished book to be published in that year by his successor, Arnold Bucking. To explain these maps many pages of type work were provided. These pages, set in a lower-case type of about 16-point, were in two columns with a broad center band of white between, making a printing surface of 7i x 1 H inches, 53 lines to the page. Irregular fractions of Arabic form that must have been troublesome to cut are frequent. The type is of bold face, with few hair-lines and stubby serifs; the capital letters of the colophon are thick and close spaced in composition. Leaves are not numbered, but a running title of Roman numerals specifies the part of the book treated on the page below that title. Its paper is sized; not un- duly thick nor of rough face, but white, clear, and strong. The bold letters of the text are in striking contrast to the light, neat, and graceful letters of the engraved maps. Sweinheim is accredited as the designer not only of the lettering on the maps but of the types of the text, which are strong, clear, and readable, although inferior in grace to the letters used in the maps. The type- founding is above the average of its time. Lines are of uniform length, capitals are admirably proportioned one to another ; hyphens connect divided words. Signatures to prevent the misplacement of leaves by the bookbinder appear in proper places. ULRIC HAHN TJlric Hahn, born at Ingolstadt in Bavaria, afterward a citizen of Vienna, began to print at Rome in 1467. His first book was The Meditations of Cardinal Turrecremata, a folio of thirty-four leaves, printed from types of large size and Gothic form, that are supposed to have been brought from Austria. Attempt was made to give added attraction to the book by gracing it with rude engravings in outHne. Ulric Hahn's name appears in Hain's Repertory in the Latinized form of "Gallus"; and this Latinized name was frequently used by him in a punning way. He offered it as the proper synonym for the fowl or goose which according to tradition once saved Rome from barbarians. Li some colophons he names himself Udalricus Barbatus.^ In 1470 his printing house showed remarkable activity. He had engaged for his editor and corrector of the press the ecclesiastic, John Anthony Oampanus, with whose aid he prepared and published soon after twelve volumes in folio, mostly of a theological nature. Campanus left Rome in 1471 ; but his duties were assumed by Simon Nicolas Ohar- della, with whose assistance Hahn undertook the pubHcation of other large works. Ohardella's enthusiasm for printing was as strong as that of Hahn. In one of his books he says, "Having compassion on the poverty of the poor, and consider- ing the scarcity of the rich, he (Hahn) is resolved to make 'Anser Tarpeii custos Jovis, unde, quod alis Constreperes, Gallus decidit. Ultor adest: Udalricus Gallus, ne queni poscaiitur in iisuiTj, Edocuit pennis nil opus esse tuis. Imprimit ille die quantum non scribitur anno. Ingenio, baud noceas, omnia vincit bomo. 53 Printers induced to make smaller types books after a careful revision of their texts by learned men." He also adds that Hahn was then producing three thousand volumes in a year — more than could have been done in the century before, so much did the new art of printing surpass the old method of writing. Ohardella ceased to be helpful at the end of 1474, but Ulric Hahn continued to print until his death in 1478. His last work was another edition of The Meditations of Cardinal Turrecremata, dated December 31, 1478. Hahn was active as a type-founder as well as a publisher. Proctor accredits him with seven fonts of type, Roman, Semi- roman, and Gothic, that were used in printing some sixty books between the years 1468 and 1478. The accompanying facsimile of a page of Hahn's edition of Summa Oratorum Omnium presents another indication of the desire of early printers to compress matter within a smaller space. Types previously presented were on 15- 16- or 17 -point bodies or their intermediates, but this is of 14-point. The additional compactness desired was secured by shortening ascenders and descenders so that more lines of print could be put on the page. The small letters of the lower-case are taller in height, but the round letters like o, e, and c have not been noticeably condensed. Its capitals, of unusual width, are not harmonious ; E and M seem un- duly wide for other letters that seem relatively pinched. Unlike other printers, Hahn made the final lower-case s of a full width ; but his a, of which he made two forms, is only a slight improvement on the cramped a made by Sweinheim and Pannartz. Abbreviations, double letters, and accented letters are frequent. Hahn also made another size of Semi- roman type on the much smaller body of 12i points, with which he printed an edition of Cicero in 1468. 54 Plate 9 O ratorum omniu:Poetartim:Iftoricoi^;acpbiIofopbonim deganter dicfVa : p Clarifllmum virum Albertum de Eiib» m vnum coUeAa Feliciter Incipiunt« LBERTVS DE . EHB . S. D. N. PIT. ir. PON. MAX. SECRETARTVS. REVE/ redlfllmom Xpo pri:& dno dno lobani dei gf a epo 7Vlonafterienfi;ComitiPaIatmo Rbent: ac Bauarie duciIliuftriflimo:SaIutem plurtma dicitrfic prefens dedicat opus. Opta (ii fepenumero Reueren pater ac pnceps liluftrifllme: Heroicarumcultor virtutu ut fi quado mibi adeflet odummonullas artis Rbe/ torice pceptiones.'diuerfas claufularum variationcs: acplurimas tarn oratorumrg poctaru3:ac Iftoricojj: autoritates: diuerfis in voluminibus Cparfasidc vage difiecf^as : dicftu quide dd memoratu digniflimasrque ad ornatd.concmna«fplendidam & refonante orationem:acad bene beatec^ viuendum admodum conducerentrfie expedi/ rent: in vnam(2ut documenta fumere uolentibus longe mquifitois labor ab eflet)diligerem confonantia:at<^in facilem quenda reducere modum.Etfi ea res:fuper qua fermonem fepenumeroin multam ^uxinius noAemrln^ niti pene fit operis dc immenfiradeo ut vnde inicium: vnde mediu^; &; unde denic^ finemrm tante rei magnitudine fummamon iniuria fubfiftam: Ac tS turn autoritatis:tantumcg dignitatis & excellentie contineat:utn6 infimu^ aut mediocrem uirum dsfatigaretrfed fummu: ac ,fpe diuinum oratorem id aggredi perborrefcere g plurimum faccret : Tamen tuas ne prcces : que fe/ dulo imperii mibi loco funt dc que boc conficiendi opus meis modo rationi bus alligarunt.videar declinare(^tibi enim quicgdpoflum debeo: dc me non modo buic rei: veru cuicuc^ poffibili deiuncftumroDnoviumcp tcnes)niateri am longe paten tern :anguftis finlbus terminabo &c in ucrba qpotero(^ No eni^ cuncfta compIeAendi mibi cupido inccflit)conferam pauciflima. iuxta Ouidii uerba* Qyicquid pcipies efto breuis ut dto dicfta pcrdpiat dodles teneantq? fideles. Ad boc enim inftituendum opusmulla magis meres ex citauit pater bumanifUmerq ut tue imprimis clementierq iampridem vmcej atcp reUgiofifllme colui complaceremrtametfi. no nibil ipia me gloria moue/ bat:que (i meritis.'aut uirtute pta e)ctitit:femper eft a fummis uiris magno ftudio quefLta;& a iapientibusbominibus maxime laudata. Nonnibiletia^ exercendarum ingemi uirium mecaufeinducebattquia queadmodum trifte eft diuiti decedere fine berederita mifernmum eft babenti a deo fummo gra tia intellecft^rpofteris fuis:id eft ftudiofis nibil ornatum dimittere:quo pof fint ueluti beredesintellecfhjs aliqualiter confolari.Et lic^ tot in omnifcien tia:& in primis in oratorieartis facultate fcripferintrut iam mundu pene il/ luminauerintradbuc tn inueniendis inuenta no obftant.Inftar enifolis ow tur intelIeAus:5ci ocadtt: vadit dcrediit: &; nunq morit . Nunc boc unuj princeps clementiflIme:equo fer animo uelim; vt meu buic fit operi c5fecra/ Ulric Halin. Home, 1475 Albertus de Eyb : Summa Oratorum Omnium li-polnt JOHN PHILIP DE LIGNAMINE John Philip db Lignamine was an early printer at Rome who also had a local reputation as author, editor, and chroni- cler. For the literary side of his duties he had been well qualified by the good fortune of noble birth and a liberal edu- cation in the profession of medicine, but there is no record of his tutelage at typography. De Lignamine began to print in 1470 and continued until 1476. Then followed a period of inactivity. A few books are known to have been produced by him between 1481 and 1484, of which the facsimile of S. Bonaventure is a fair exhibit, but his edition of Laurentius Valla, of 1471, is the best specimen of his press. Many of the books and pamphlets that followed are of a smaller size and of inferior present value, apparently produced to supply temporary require- ments. The facsimile here shown is from a thin pamphlet of twenty leaves, entitled Oratio in vitum et merita divi S. Bonaventure, which was printed in 1482. Its small face of type, on 16 -point body, was apparently made by inex- perts ; its presswork, here pale, there overinked and uneven, is on unsized paper of dingy tint. His Oronica Pontificum Imperatorum (1474) contains de Lignamine's version of the German invention of printing in Mainz, and specially notes the names of Gutenberg, Fust, and Mentel as printers between the years 1458 and 1464. De Lignamine held an honorary office under Pope Six- tus IV, and worthily received distinction as a learned man; but he cannot be classed with the masters of printing in Italy. In sixteen years he made about forty books. 56 Plate 10 lO.PHlLIPPVS LIGNAMINE EQijESSI/ CVL VS DlVl SIXTI Qu/VRTI PONTIR CISMAXIMI FAMILIARIS OMNIBVS CHRISTIANE RELIGIONIS PROFESSO RIBVS SAL VTEM IN DOMINO. VDITE HEC OMNES GEN/ test auribuspercipice qui babicatis orbcm.Quicj tcrrigenac 8C filii bo/ minum fimul in unum diues fiC pau per.Os mcti loquef fapientia:5^ meditatio cor/. d(s mci prudcntia. fapientia inqua 5C prudcntia. fan^tiiTimi dni noftri diui Sixti quarti pon.max qui cum efTet ab ipo natali diuina quadam pro/ uidcutia dC in bumanu genus benignitatc religio ni minorumc^ ordini dcftinatus in ca adultus id cflfecit:ut ucre fibi fapientic laudcm compararct; ecquodtamanoftrisq auctcribus do(fli(Timis ac fancftirfimis pbilofopbis acccpcrat rc ipfa oftc deret.ut fe bomincm mcminifTet: ad bominil utl litatem effe natum opcram dedit quantum in co fuit in quocuc^ dignitatis gradu ut quatuor illis rebus; quibus cx platonis fentcntia beneficcntic opcrationes eXcrcentur opera fcilicet 5c uiribusV orarionc ac opibus multis cgentibus tmo olbus ©petit ferref carnqt uitc ratio iiem fcmp tcnuittut John Philip de Lig-namine. Rome, 1482 Oratio In vitum et merita divi S. Bonaventure 16-poiiit GEORGE HEROLT George Herolt of Bamberg has distinction as a careful type-founder and printer, as will be more plainly perceived in the accompanying facsimile of a page of his Origenis Proaemium contra Oelsum, etc. Laire commends his "ele- gant Roman letter," which was more carefully designed and neatly cut than the type of any rival of his time in Rome: in symmetry and alinement his types are as harmonious as those of Jenson of Venice. Following the prevailing fashion, his types are fitted to one another with great closeness, but not to indistinctness. The capital letters have thick strokes that give them the needed prominence, but they do not seem too bold in combination with their mated lower-case letters. The final lower-case s is of fair width, much more pleas- ing than the pinched s of more famous printers in Venice; but the cramping of structural lines in the a and e is in obedience to old usage repeated. But few characters were used. The diphthongs se and oe seldom appear. . : and ^ are the only points of punctuation. The hyphen is not used for a divided word. As was then customary, there is no sep- arate type for v, but there are many accented, abbreviated, and conjoined characters. Judged by modern standards the types here shown of Herolt are insufficient for the exact rendering of a classic text, but the general effect of his page is admirable for neat workmanship, as noticeable in press- work as in the designing, engraving, and casting of types. Proctor credits Herolt with thirty- seven books in the British Museum. In four others he was aided by Sixtus Riessinger, who had been a notable printer at Naples in 1471. 58 Plate 11 ORIGENISPROAEMIVM CONTRA CELSVM ET IN HDEI CHRISTIANAE DEFENSIONEM LIBER.I. ^^Ortaris facer Ambrofi ut Cclfit ctfi ; gcntilis & philofophi hominis obie (^iones: in chriftiana religione obla I trantis:^ noftro arbitrio refutemus. , Ipfc ucro: ccfi afliduis & magnis: ut I ^ te nofti:Laboribus interpcllonqp pc qui facras littcras omnes incerprc I \ tandi prouincia mihi defumpfcrim: ' haudquaq tamcn pro maximis tuis ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ i^e benefidistad re non minus ho icfSn q ncceflarii hortanti tibi fum defiiturus^Quis enim tarn Itfuis philofophi dicacitatis petulatia culeritr'q fuis tenebris qbus immcrgit" nihil concentustuel aliis has ipfas ut ingerat enitaf tq de rcrum conditorc optime fentiat:& eius uelit difciplina & infli tuta obftrepedo perucrcere:qui a mortc homines reuocauit ad ui tam:&crrantibus immortalitatis iter oftedit.Enimuero de rebus humanis tam bene mereri poteft: q peftiferos errores fuftulerictq qui pic docet innocecerc^ uiucre.Taetfi illd dicere aufim nemine ufpia inuenin qui diuinis fit Iris apprimc eruditus: & uer5 dei m xpo caritatcm adeptus: qui delirantibus Celfi diAistadt fui fimi bum uel nutet uel paenitus moueaf ♦ no enimaxpi fide:ut ucte^ ?iuonda pdiabar:uroflcndit PIu.Et nepos in epiftolis pro caluifio ira ro gar:Hunc rogo femeftri tribunaru fpIendidiore&fibi& auuculofuo facias. hinc luiic.annulu rnbuniciu femeRre dixit, d Camerinos: no/ bilestfcd non gratosprincip!:quaIis fuirSulpicius camerinus : q depro conrul.itu aphricac accufatuseapd' Ncrone:fed rameabfolutus:ut cor/ nelius (cnbif. e Bareas.i. nobiles nongrarosprincipi:qualis fuit Ba rcas:Saranus dequoanteae di^iu. f PeIopeia:opusdePeiopeiauxore Thyeftis. g Haud ramc inuidcas uatuhocex ftomachoair in Papi, q canes & rccitanscarmina uidlum qu2Erebat:in quo ait non ee ei inui/ dendil: nota's illius impudenria 6k turpequafftu, b Pafcunnna Papi/ nius accepir pra^diu a Domitiano in aIbano:qd iadariAfl ego darda/ nia^:quis fub collibus albsetRus ^/ priu iTiagniqueducismihi muncre curresundadomi. i Fabius Letu/ lusrdehtsantediflue. k Vinum toto decebri:hoc dicic ^pter fatur^ nalia'.quaf mefcdecebri celebraban turiMagna liccntia poculorum .Papini'us in faturnalibus;Et multograuidus mcro december. Senfusigirureft:utilefuifl"e multis uinoabftinuilTeeuam eo tempore; quo omncs indulgent', ideft in faturnalibus toto decembrindeft toiis farurnalibus.Fidentinus port fabulas fuas rande noftramrefertopinionenr.cuiinuifusaflentitur. i Oleiplust ldeftmaiorem lucubrationem undeorationes Demofthenis didae Tunt lucernam o!ere:quoniam nodu ha: erant lucubrarx, ■» Sed genus ignauum:proponit obiedioncm 8i ei refpondet:poncs inquit dicere hiftoricos ni hil Iucrari:quoniam non prodeuntin forum:&aguntnegocium:fcd femper in umbra funt, luuenalisucrooftedit homines eiufdem inftituti &!artis non plus lucrarijfi in negociisuerfen turtquam qui in umbra fuerunrantiquorumtemporibus, « Caufidici inquit:qui exercet elo quentiam in foro:centum non habent tantum diuiriarummt omnia corum bona poflint com f>arari etiam cum exiguo rure Artici fati equitis romani:quem ditilTimum fuifle fcribit Corne iusnepos:eloquentem teftatur Cicero appellatum fatumoftcndit Suetonius Ceciliusinquir: Epirota Tufculi narus libertusiAttici fati equitis romani:ad quern funt Ciceronis epiftolaeiqd' idem deledatus fit otio:& umbra oftendit Cicero ad cum fcribens : Te inquit otium mc ucro g A Printer at Rome (Rubens of Venice?), 1474 Satires of Juvenal Larger type, 16-point . . . Smaller type, lOJ-point Roman edition of Satires of Juvenal The facsimile (plate 13) on the preceding page is fi'om an edition of Juvenal's Satires, neatly planned and carefully bound in tooled red leather, but it is without the specified name of printer or place of printing. It contains the printed date of 1474, and in a paragraph intended as a substitute for the colophon are these words; "Editi Romae." Brunet (vol. iii, column 628) states that this is the folio edition with the commentary of Oalderinus which incloses the text on three sides. Deferring to Audiffredi, Brunet leans to the belief that this edition, although published at Rome, was really printed at Venice, and probably by Jacob Rubeus, who had issued an edition of which this is a fair counterpart. Hain catalogues under the number 9690 a resembling edition of Juvenal, as published at Rome, but hazards no statement about the printer. A Juvenal of Rome is credited to Wendelinus de Wila, who is registered as the printer of a few works. The text of this edition is in a Roman type on 16 -point body. The commentary around the text is on a body of lOJ points. An alphabetical letter of small size is used in the text over the low or round letters as a mark of reference. This must have made troublesome work for the compositor, for it compelled the cutting down of the upper shoulder of any round letter so treated. I have never seen this method imitated by any other Italian printer. It does show the anxiety of the printer to be exact, but it increased the liability to error, for an inserted reference mark not properly braced was liable to drop out. The types of this book are compressed but clear, and they show the thick lines and stubby serifs then in vogue. The fitting up of the matrices to the mold seems to have been done by an expert founder, although some letters are out of line. 64 TYPES OF VENICE JOHN AND WENDELIN OF SPEYER On the IStli day of September, 1469, the College of Venice granted to John of Speyer, a new-comer and recently made citizen, an exclusive privilege of five years for printing the Letters of Cicero and the Natm-al History of Pliny. Little is known of the early life of John of Speyer ; but the patent recites that he came to Venice with his wife and family to print books in the " most beautiful form of lettering." Speyer is midway between Mainz and Strasburg, the two reputed cradles of typography, and at early date some men in this city should have had a knowledge of printing. Santander says there is evidence that printing had been done there before 1469. John of Speyer had certainly acquired fair proficiency in printing before he went to Venice. H e began to print, not as a novice but as a master of the art, with uncommon activity. In less than one year (for he died in 1470), he and his brother had produced the Familiar Letters of Cicero, the Natural History of Pliny, the first volume of the Roman History of Livy, and were busy upon St. Augustine's City of God. Of the Familiar Letters and the Natural History he printed one hundred copies within three months. Of the second edition of Familiar Letters he printed six hundred copies in two issues of three hundred each, within four months. Work was then in progress on the Livy and on St. Augustine, but he left us no record of the number of copies. 65 Print preferred for its legibility The illustration annexed is the facsimile of a page of the Livy which was printed in two large folio volumes in 1470. Its type was cast on a hody a trifle larger than 15 -point, but it appears in print as bolder than the Roman type of that body made by other printers. It has mannerisms that even a hasty reader will note, especially in the sparsity of hair- lines and of serifs at the ends of thick strokes. Its general eflPect is that of the style of type now known in America as Old-style Antique. The ruggedness was then unusual. Ital- ian writers of manuscripts had tried to make letters attrac- tive by lightness and delicacy of stroke; in this Livy the letters were plainly cut on the punch with intent to make them more than usually thick and black in print. The thick lines and general ruggedness of the letters were not produced entirely by these designers and engravers. Haste in production may have been a contributing cause. Punches rudely struck in the metal for matrices, letters hurriedly cast, and types overinked and too forcibly impressed on over- dampened paper very often increased the desired boldness beyond the intent of the designer. This boldness was not caused entirely by blunting of types through wear, for the presswork of the second volume of this thick book shows types not inferior in clearness to those of the first volume. Their even lining in print indicates that the matrices had been fitted up by an expert. The type of this Livy is the only size and face of Roman made by John of Speyer, but, rugged as it now appears, it was attractive to the book buyers of its time. It has merits that are still commended; there are readers now who regard it as little inferior to the types of Jenson — inferior by reason of its needless boldness and ruggedness, but equally meritorious in its roundness, clearness, and easy readability. 66 Plate 14 HOS SECVTI.M.GENVTIVSiETP. curatius Cofules . Fuit anus domi forifcp ifeflus. Na anni principio ficdcconubio Patrum :ac Plcbis. C. Canulcius Tnbunus Plcbis rogatione^mulgauit.q contaminari fanguine fuu Pres :cofun diqj lura getium rebantur . Et mentio primo fenfim illata a Trrbunis utaltc:^ ex Plebc Cofulc liccrfic ficri:eo ^ceffit deinde ut rogatione nouc Tribuni^mulgarct:ut populo ptas efCdC'Xeu de Plcbcifcu dc Patribus uelldC Cofules faciedi. Id ucrorfi fierSC: non uulgari modo cum infimis:fed^rfas auferri a primoribus ad Plebcm (umu Impiu credebat. Lpti ergo audierc Patres : Ardcatiu populu ob iniuria agri abiudicati dcfciflc : 8c Veientes depopulatos extrema agri Romani. &c Volfcos Equofq) ob comunitam Vcrrugine fremere.adeo uel ifelix bcllum ignom iniofp paci prpferebat. His itaqt i maius etia acceptis: ut iter Arepttu tot bello:yt coticefcerent acfliones Tribunitip:dclcdlus babcri:bellu armac^ ui luma apparari iubct.fiquo intetius poCfit ^-T.Quintio Cofule apparatu fit. Tu.C. Canulcius pauca I Senatu uociferas neqcg territado Cofules ancrtcre plebe a cura noua:^ legum: Nuq cos fe uiuo dele(5tu babituro8:antc q ea qup promulgata ab ferCollegifq) cfTcntrplebes fciuiifdC : &C cofedihi ad cocioncm aduocauit. Eode tcpore & Cofules Senatu i Tribunu:fiC Tribunus Populu { Cofules-.icitabat. Negabat Cofules ia ultra fcrri poffc furores Tribunitios uentum iam ad fine eflfc.domi plus belli cocitariiq foris.id adeo no Plebis q Pat^itncq) Tribunoy magis:q Cofulu culpa accidcrc. cuius rci premiu fit in ciuitate t ca maximis fempcr aucJlibus crefcerc.fic pace bonos : fic bello fieri. Maximu Rom^ premiu Icditionu ce.td 6C fingulis:uniuerfif(j fcmp bonori fuiflfc.Rcminifccrct'qua maicf^ateScnatuf ipii a pribuf accepillet.qm liberis tradituri cflTcnt. ut qucadmodii Plcbsrgloriari pofliBC audtiorciaphoreq? cflc. Fine ergo no fieri:nec futu^:donec q felices feditiones :ta bonorati feditionii auAores effent.quas qntafq; res.C.Canulein aggreHumTColluuione gcntiu: perturbatione aufpicio^ publico^stpriuatoruc^ affcrre:ne qd fincen:ne quid incotaminati fit:ut difcrimine omni fublato:nec fe qfquat nec fuos nouerit, Quam cnim alia uim conubia^mifcua babcrcmifi ut feray^pc ritu: uulgef cocubitus Plebis patrumq):ut q natus fit:ignor8Cfcuius (anguinis: quorum facroy fit:dimidius Pat:^ fit.dimidius Plebis/nc fccu qdc ipfc cocors. Patijc id uideri:quod oia diuina:buana(^ turbet'.Iam ad Cofulatu uulgi turbatores accingi.fic primo ut alter Coful ex Plcbe fierfic : id modo fermoibus tetalTe. Nuc rogari:ut feu ex Patribus:feu ex Plcbe uclit Populus Confulcs creet.fiC creaturos baud dubic ex Plcbe fcditiofiflfimii qucqj . Canuleios igit Iciliofqi Confulcs fore.ne id lupiter optimus maximus firicr& : Regiac maieflatis Imperium eo rcciderc.& fe milies morituros porius; q ut tantum dcdecoris admitti patiant'.ccrtu babcre: maiores qooqi fi diuinalTent concededo omnia no mitiore in fe Plcbcm;fcd afpiorctalia ex aliis iniqora poftulado : cu prima impetrair^ futuram:primo qualibfic dimicationem fubituros fuiflfc potiusr 5 eas leges fibi imponi patercnt". quia turn conccCTum fit dc Tribunis: item conccHlim efTe.fme non fieri pofTe:! cade duitate Tribunos Plebis: 6C Prcs .aut hue ordineraut illu ^agi(lratum toUedum crTcpotiufqi fero: q niiq obuia eundu audacip:temcritati9.illi ne ut impune primo difcordias feretes cocitet fmitima bclla;demdc aducrfus ea quf concitauermt: armari ciuiutem Jolin and Wendelin of Speyer. Venice, 1470 Livy: Decades 15-point WENDELIN OF SPEYER The early death of John of Speyer annulled the privileges granted to him by the authorities of Venice, but his brother Wendelin, who had been associated with him from the beginning, took up his unfinished work. He completed the four books then in press and matm*ed grand plans for an enlargement of the business. To carry out these plans he admitted to a partnership John of Cologne and John Manthen, whose names appear in many following imprints of new books. They enlisted in service eminent scholars as correctors of the press, and published many editions of the classics that are now famous. Nearly fifty dated and several undated works, largely scholastic, mainly in folio or large quarto, are recorded as their work between 1470 and 1473. Then came a halt. It is probable that Wendelin was visionary, or unfit to be a manager or financier, and that John of Cologne and John Manthen, who had valid claims as partners, desired more control of the mechanics of printing as well as of its finance. There is no record of mortgage or suit at law, but the types and material of the partnership after 1473 passed into the hands of the recently made part- ners, who managed their business with zeal and intelligence, for they added largely to the old stock of types. Proctor identifies seventeen faces of type used by the remaining partners. Within the years 1474 and 1480 they produced numerous works. It does not appear, however, that the business was profitable, for their work then ceased and they left no successor of marked merit. The disappointment of the Speyer brothers and of their seceding business partners 68 Small Roman type first made unsatisfactory seems to have been caused by the same error of judgment that produced the failure of Sweinheim and Pannartz at Rome. They had catered too submissively to the tastes of the wealthy and luxurious. Their books were too big, high in price, and unavoidably slow of sale. The book buyer of small income needed and insisted on books of smaller size and at lower price. Wendelin of Speyer, who, in 1475, began afresh as printer and publisher, this time without partners, undertook to meet the demand for the smaller book. It was not then an easy task to print compactly in Roman type. It seemed necessary to make some serious change in the accepted form. Round and low letters had to be made a little taller, ascenders and descenders had to be shortened, broad characters visibly condensed, and abbreviations lavishly employed. By no other method did it seem practicable that the text of a folio in type of 16 -point body could be crowded in a small quarto with type of 12 -point body. It was believed that these changes, with the customary thin spacing of words and the provision of two columns to the page, would compress the matter of a bulky book within handy dimensions. The book selected for this experiment was the Commentary of Dr. John Scott on the Four Books of Sentences, which was pub- lished in 1475. A facsimile of the last page appears as plate 1 5 on a following leaf. The new book was an unfortu- nate venture. The names of the designer of the type and its type-founder are unknown, but Wendelin has to bear the discredit. It may be assumed that Wendelin, planning to establish a new printing house with little delay, or to meet the threatened competition of an announced work by a rival publisher, was induced to make use of this imperfect type and composition. The critical reader cannot repress 69 Wendelin unsuccessful as a maker of books astonishment that this uncouth type could have been made for and published by the surviving partner of the house that had printed grand editions of Livy and Pliny. This edition of the Commentary of Dr. John Scott appeared in double columns in the form of a quarto of more than three hundred printed leaves inclosed in stout boards of wood and secured with four clasps of riveted leather; its broad back, three inches thick, was protected by a wide band of leather, stamped in the fashion of the Venetian bookbinders of that time. Its paper is white, strong, and firm. The press- work is uneven; some types are overcolored and inky, but more are pale and clean. The book has no title-page, running title, or even Roman numerals for paging, but an index of twenty- two pages in front is replete with Arabic figures. Many devices to compact composition are here apparent: capital letters, sparingly used for proper names, are some- times omitted at the beginning of sentences; hyphens are not used for broken words; superiors, or small letters above the line, appear on every page. Annotations with pen are frequent, probably made by an early buyer of the book. This experiment with a smaller size of type for a cheap book, judicious as it promised to be,^ proved a complete failure, probably by reason of haste and scamped workmanship. The clumsy type did not appear again in any other book. Wen- delin soon returned to the older practice of printing books of merit in large form, of which he made a few before 1478, when he finally abandoned printing. His last book, the Divine Comedy of Dante, was not in Roman letter, but in a style of type described by Proctor as Italian Gothic. ' It may seem ungracious to point out the Deference is unwisely paid to types that are occasional shortcomings of early masters of merely old, regardless of their inerit or of the art, but some comment is unavoidable. their acceptability to the reader. 70 Plate 15 sol liflifti'tis defigaaf de Me <^auid a fait dc bcthlap cxitij c£flitat1 eter 03 n«ioitas dcf ignat p'que f|? I patre oafcit fpnat9,e.8j qd in ^Higi.t ad Ifaj ct xpo.p^ qi uW 003 hlm^ daator chal'"" tueffias; j5 ^acWrfe exulta f atis filia fiotii lubila fil« fcrf m cccc rex tu9 ueaiet tibi iuflds & falua tor.cccc xpi deltas ip pauper ftf afce desfup afi'na.'Ccce ci9 haaaicaSi^iD.au £bre! ludco^i illz auctis no p5t cxpoi fi dtf mcQ[ia ad.lf aj. 5' f»bat Oc gen.xlix.no aufert fccpt^i de lud« 8^ diw de feruoJ-e ci9 donccjooiat g mittc d? eQ.5i ip: eric expcai'' gltjuj mo fublata e reg° & diiatio iudcts a tej^fi ficrodis afcoloite.fBl oat? c (fis.g ab illo t^c uenit spSiticc oalj qd dicut <^ iflaau^tjs iatellfgic de oabucho?'"re ge q ccpi'tregern fcdechia. & populii duxit capti">bibtlonia. Si tac defe did reg" fedcchie.^ ip: f uit ccc9 & /i li'i ciTiDortui.frm e.9 rcdeutepopulo de capti*< habucrut duces 8i pricfpcs d: ^orobab:! efdra nemi'a.Si macfia b^is.^abuerc ed rcges«f.ioIiane Iiirca" fi" fiiiionis raadiabei.qct aut iDtdligi tur de xpo.p^qj chal'"' uctuflashjqn ucniat raeffias ubi nos hem? g mftted? efl. p danief ix^ia^t.aogtlus ad da nicle doces eo de tpc aiucnc? xpi facx? dadomades abbrcuiate Cut fup popujij guu 5C fup urbem'tuai fanita ut coffl inef puaricfl?.8i fiocra accipiat pittii delcat iniqtas 8i adducat uifli^ fepit oa.oi ungat fcps fc6|?. ^ i fac fcri^tu fTdjdomoda dupfr nccipif»uoo too^ e^e.7«dic9«.8i fie accipit c5it. i?* p tpe.7,aimo52:Si fic accipit leuitj»2f numerab(t.7.'ebdoracdas„jnnom^.f n pot iotelligi de ebdomida p moi^^tiic pphetia fuid^'DpIcta io^anooj &i dimi dio.g 2? m5. toto aut tpfis illud ptcrl tij &caplccu fuit ia medio ultie ebdo msdij; p danielts 2?,aabucho" ui dit Oatuy magna ct»i? caput ex auro pcit? 8{Bchi3 de argeto'.pe'ter.de ere* tfijie de ferr'o.abf cif^* e lapis de moQtc (im fnamV.SJ pcuffttflacuai pedi^^j 6f diDtttit ea.p qua defigtiSf .^.mag* rcg< fibi fuccedetia^p"' fuit reg" chal deo3?.2" i tcgou piaw.qtt fubiecit (i bi reg" chaldeopi,?" rcg"" greco?! qi fubiecit f ibi reg" pfa^^.f^." rcgau ra Buanogj qd fobiec it fibi rcgnu grecoJC 6i oia reg^ mudi.io de fcrro'qd dofuat oin metalla .lapis aiit fuit xps.cui fbj e f egnu romano54 .qd: ipletii e toe cofli titii 8C f ilueOri pape. tunc ar9 ille cui f ec debebat reg" fomanoji i sps i dcfco tpeoftatini rcg" romano^i fait fubieaii'^ xps omkt Ad ar" iQ op po" d?*q) Jiuti Ifati 81 j^idiai iudcos pcepunt i tpe xpi .p^ de nataoTiclcni cho"? di gamacle.uii Io*dc pricipib? njf ti crediderut in eo, § g> pMcoi o Df itebmt nc extra finagogaj f icrefi ExpKciat.q.To. Scot/.fup gtuor U bris foiaru? nie",8e de aia.SCqdlibetj eiafde.impfic'i? Mgria Vcnddiau dc Spirj. Lausdio Wendelin of Speyer. Venice, 1475 Commentary of John Duns Scotus on the Four Books ot Sentences 12-point NICOLAS JENSON Venice, in 1470, offered many inducements to printers. It had large libraries and educated and wealthy book collectors ; it was the largest market in Europe for the sale of manu- scripts; it offered facilities for cheap transportation by sea; artists and mechanics were numerous and of unusual ability ; paper was cheap and excellent. Appreciating its advan- tages, Nicolas Jenson of France went to Venice in 1470 and became a competitor of the Speyer brothers. He had served apprenticeship in the mint of Paris, afterward became master of the mint in Tours, and was well qualified to super- intend fine workmanship in metal. There is a legend that Charles VII, then king of France, sent him to Mainz in 1458 to acquire a knowledge of typography, and that the death of the king at his return in 1461 prevented his earlier practice in Paris of the new art. Madden discredits the legend, and intimates that he obtained his knowledge of printing in a monastery at Cologne; but the evidence of this tutelage is not entirely satisfactory. It is probable that Jenson brought his model types to Venice; they are designed and engraved with too much care for hasty work. He settled there in 1470 and soon began to print with diligence. Controversy exists concerning the title of his first book, but there is now general agreement that its true date is 1470. A little book entitled Decor Puellarum declares in its colo- phon that it was printed at Venice by Nicolas Jenson in the year 1461. The type is that of Jenson but the date is doubted. There is reason to believe that one Roman nu- meral, X, has been dropped from the types of the date, which should read 1471. No other book of Jenson produced 72 Plate 16 rogo ignofcarismihiifi logius fumeuccJhis.frcqucntifri'ma prseparatio cum pluribus ueibis:uel quarefadhin quidfimusiuelquarefecenmus did folct. Verho^ quoq; uis ac prophetas cdfirmatur uel prxfupaonc: qq ilia non poenatfcd ^hibitio fcclcns fait : aut feprchenfione.Ciues inqfi hoccosappellari noiefas cft,AfFert aliquafideuentaus:&: dubi' tario cum fimulamus quxrcrcnosudcfapicndum: ubi definendum: qd potifli'mum diccndu:an of no dicendu fit:cuiufmodiexeplis plena funt omfa:fcd unum interim fuffidt.Equidc quod ad mcattinec:quo meuertam nefdo: negem fuiffc infamiam iudidi corrupti: 6C cxtera. Hoc etiam i prsEteritum ualct* Namct dubitaflc nos fingimus: a quo fchematc non procul abeft illa quse didtur cdmunicatiorcu apud ipds aduerfarios cofuliustutDomitius Aferpro Qoatilla,Atillanerat*:tre/ pidat:quid liceat foeminsetquid cdiugc deceatiforte uos in illa folirudie obuios cafus mi ferae mulieri optulit.tu fratermos patemi amiciiquod cofilium daas:aut cum iudiabus quafi deliberamus:quod eft freque^ riffimum. Quid fuadetis:& uos interrogo: quid tande fieri, oporaiit.'' ut Cato.Caxlo fi uos in eo loco efTetisiquid aliud fedffctis. & alibi cO'' munem rem agi putatoterac uos huic rei prsepofitos efre:red nonuq cdmunicates aliquid I'expetftatu fubiungimus: quod 6c per fe fchema cftrut in Verrem Cicero.Quid deinde:quid ccnferisr'fiirtum fortalTef' aut pracdam aliquamr'Ddnde cum diu fufpendifTet iudicum animos fubiedt:quod multo efTet fprobius ,Hoc Celfus fubftentationc uocar: Eft aute duplex.Na cotra frequenter cum expecflationc grauiflVmo^i fecimus.ad aliquid quod fitleueraut nullo modo crimmofutdefccdi-' mus.Sed quia non tantum per cofcationem fieri folet -^of^^b^PAalit nominauerunt ideft inopinatum. Illis non accedo: qui fchema efle exiftimant:eriam fiquid nobis ipfis dicamus inexpetirtcatoU mozslia q lejc vetu8. 7 addat alia ucl faltc addat ft' li'qua cxplicaconcm aliquo:um ad qua hue ipfi no (cnebanf q' quantu ad hoc eft grauio:.tn boc n tm grauat fioit cj: alia pre grauat cerlontalms muUttudo ^ iudicialm. pte aut Icgts noue plus flUcuiatmulmudo 7 effi'cacia au):iUo^ I'ta cp lUa ttiodica grauitae ft qua fit ma ioi in mojalibue no pponderat graui'ra ti in alqe.i boc penfatia aujrilqe bic m. ([3ld 2'" oico q? oiflFicultas m ope virtu ofo no eit p fc ex pte opantierfed ejc pre opis.oi'fRdUue eni'm e auaro oare vnH cp Uberali oece5. 7 tn no vi'rtuoftug.ncc qualifcunc^ oifficulrajejrpte opis arga it maioze virtuofitate. ^cd ilia que per fc includic c)CC£llen«'a5 obiecti :q6 per k atringi'f p opatocm.ralieautc oifRcrtas ftat cum maioti kuitatc. "^am Icui' eft atringcre amando obicrtit ejrccllmtiua cp obtectu minus ejccellene i talia ope ra ejcccllcntia I'mediate refpicicnn'a oeiJ plura funt Cjcplicira ilcge nouaZPultt cnim actus oilcctois oet immediate ma gis ejcplicantur cbziflianiey iudcie.nec mirum quia ilia oicitur em Icjc timozij bee aiif amozis.amo: aure} 1 pripue fi nis fi ille queraf in omnibufifacit om^ onera Ieuia:ut ueru fit q6 oi^it faluato 2Patb.20.dlenitead me.flt fcquitur. j[ugumem'mmeiifuaueeft:'Zonus me urn leue. 4ui fir lauf bonot 7 glojia per Infinita feculomm fecula, (j[JBmm.___ fmPteffum venetns ad et pefaa levnm ifi[rplidticr{ptu5 fupcr tcrtio fententi'a' ru medtfgfti a fran'e ioahne punstozdi nisfratrum mi'op poctozefubtilif^jrmr' '^coiT ThTum jbe<^r / (udtcn. lt)/.E>(ctD.7n quana comltiit cim? m9'datreftf(Uffpol(atoe,lb(* •3o:equaf.p5tali| com dentefeu face, Pilnhafte: pilum erat hafta romao^. laculo uolucri: ueloci uolucreeftquicquid uolat. unde fagic tam'appellamusuolucremi Harudo: fagftta harudinea: dephalarica didtil eft fupra ubi cecinitjuix muris toleran da lues. Speramusnedea?:huiushor/ ridspugnae euentu narraturus: poeta uotu repetitad uirgilii imitatione: ex horatii praccepto in artepoetica 8i utff addubitatione ut deuitetarrogatiam : polTumusne didt fper^f o mulx ut co cedaf hancpugna monumetis Ifa^^fli carmibus pofteritati trader fauoreque mufa^ emeref cii ilh^ fe facra colore dicit. Mortali uoce:huano carmie no diuino. Diemrpugnam huius diei ad Aperirein feculajmadarelfis C orporaxonfiftunc auidixalcantque gementcs. N cc magis aut libyco procrudi dardana nifu A uerii ue poteft pubes;aut ordme pelli F ixa fuo (arrana manus g udlere f ede S i temptetcalpenimpacbogurgitepontus. A mifere idms fpacium.nec morte peracla A rdatis cecidiffc licet: galea horrida fliclu A duerfae ardcfdt galea?.clypeufque fatifcit I mpulfu clypei:atque enfis contunditur enfe. P es pede:uirque uiro teritiir;tellu(que uideri S anguie opcrta nequit:coeluque et fydera pedes A bftulit in geftis nox denfa fub ethere telis. uis aftare loco dederat fortuna fecundo C ontorum longo et proccrae cuf pidis iclu; C eu ptimas agitent acies;certamina mifcent. A t quos deinde tenet retrorfum inglorius ordo M iffilibus certant pugnas sequare priorum. V Itra clamor agitbellum:milefque cupid M artisinops feuis impellituodbushoftcm. N ec uUum defit teb" genus .hi fude pugnas H i pinu flagrante cient:hi pondere pili . A t faxis f undaque alius iaculoquc uolucri I nterdumque ipfis metuenda f alarica muris I nterdumftridenspernubila ferturarundo S peramus ne dcx quarum mihi facra coluntur. M ortali totum huncaperire in fccula uoce P ofce diemftantum ne datisconfidere lingua:: V t cannas uno ore fonem.fi gloria nobis N oftra placet nequc uos magnis auertitis aufis. H uc omnis cantus phoebumque uocate parcnte V eruutinapofthacanimoromansefecunda cannas, ut p ofa faecula huius pugnae memoria habeaf . Daristcoceditis ne hoc meaj linguae ut uno ore cana hoc phu ad canas uicu apulie. Si gloria uobis:fi uidor uobis dignus hacgloria 8i fi uobis placet ade mihi una cu apol lie q e poeta^^ nume. Magnisaufis:his meispn'cipiis qm audeus res magnasSf qfi fupra uires. Parete:phoebus no fuit pf mufa^ fed df ad ueneratione;fic et pf poeta^. Ve^ utina poft hac:optat poeta ut r5ani eo aio defceps ferat ^fperitare fortuaj quo ilia calamitatead canas tu/ IeriJt:romani qppe feciidis rebus elati:potitique re^ ad luxu fe tota mete uerterunt & fic cecidere: luxuria romao^ coepit euerfa coritho A.L.miamio &allata j^da excypro& catoe. lege Liuiu li.ix. de cadis belli maced5ici:& Pliniii. Pofthac:poft hoc rpus. Ai'o tafo.l,&: ta coftati qm i reba fecudis demus ee modrati.na fpiu ut I'qt Salu. Facile hisartibj retinef qbo f inicio parrd e:ue^ ubip labo re defidia^p continentia atque a:quitate libido at

ciunt locos efl'e uaftos arenofos 8C caclo terra^ penuriam aquarum aut limum infupcrabilemiaut montem fl;iticuiii:aut aftridtum fri/ gore pontum:i'ta& nobis in hacuirorumcollationeperpetua re^ hiftoria quantum probabili orauoneaflequipotuimusrde his quos fupra memo rauimus uiris tepora percurrentibus uere licuir affirmare. Quae uero annquiora ac ueruHiora runt:tragica 6C moflruofa poecae 6C fabulofi re^ fcriptores occupant; nec ultra fide ullam nec certitudinem pra^fe ferunt«Cum igitur Lycurgi legum la tons dC Numae regis res geftas litteris madauerimus:haud ab re fuerit ad Romu^ Iumorationemconuertere:quandohiftoriaipfaad eius tempora gprope acceffi/' ttiuStSed mihi diu cogitanii huic uiro(ut inquit Aefchilus)quis c6ueniret:quem ilIiopponerem:quis dignus Tecum in comparationeconiugi : uifum ett. candem ^ciehdum efle : ut a quo celebrata Athenielium ciuicas amplificata earn cum Bartliolomew de Zanis. Venice, Plutaa-cli's Lives llj-point 1496 au BARTHOLOMEW DE ZANIS When printers discovered that large types and leaves made books slow of sale, they sought the aid of artists in the hope that decoration might give them proper attractiveness. Illustration had been tried, but in a timid manner. Ratdolt had printed some of his smaller engraved diagrams in color ; Renner had made initial letters to be printed with the text- types that were much superior in design to those of the aver- age calligrapher. De Zanis, the printer of an edition of Plutarch's Lives (plate 26), attempted a bolder ventm-e. Its first page contains a large engraving in outline of the combat between Theseus and the Minotaur, and he inclosed this full page with a broad border. Each page was provided with initial letters of small size, but of real merit. De Zanis could not fi'ee himself from traditional methods of compact- ness. Chapters of this Plutarch begin with huddled capital letters and the text-types that closely follow are always pre- ceded with an initial neatly designed and engraved. These initials were needed, for they gave a proper relief to the density and somberness of the closely spaced words and closely fitted types on llj-point body. These types have thick strokes of unusual width for their height, with stubby serifs and few hair-lines, that combine to give the general effect of Black-letter to the gloomy print. The scamping of white space between lines and words was a practical return to the old disproportion of black to white that is found in many Gothic manuscripts and books printed in Black-letter. In nearly two hundred pages of solid composition there is not one paragraph. The chapter is the paragraph. 98 Very small types find greater favor De Zanis met the demand for less costly editions half-way ; he reduced the size of types, hut he retained the large leaf. This was not a wise choice, for small type set solid and closely spaced in lines five inches wide is difficult to read. He had crowded in one volume the words that filled two volumes in other editions. This treatment was of economy in cost hut not a convenience to the reader. The black background for the initials and border of the de Zanis edition of Plutarch's Lives illustrates a mannerism of engraving in relief that did not long continue in favor. A folio Bible printed in Hebrew type at Soncino in 1488 with a soHd border more than two inches wide shows the culmination of this style. Printers everywhere were taught by many failures that sufficient pressure could not be given to the frail hand press then in general use to transfer ink properly and in solid mass to ordinary paper. The outline style of the Theseus was more generally adopted. Other printers in and out of Italy were experimenting then with small type. Black-letter of thick face had been made by Jenson, Ratdolt, and Renner on small bodies, but few printers had tried at that time to crowd the round-faced Roman letter on a very small body. There was a general belief among many printers that the condensed lines of Black-letter were more adaptable to the required compres- sion. As early as 1490 John Froben of Basle made and used for books a Black-letter tjrpe on 6 -point body. Not long after a 6 -point type of Roman face was made in Venice, which was then regarded as the extreme limit of compression. The new size was imitated by type-makers in all printing countries, and was much admired. In all languages this size was known by the name of Nonpareil. 99 mmm I'irmin-Didot's AlOe Manuce et l'Hell6nisrae a Venise ALDUS MANUTIUS Aldus Manutius, most famous of early Italian printers, fairly earned this distinction during his lifetime for the good service he gave as editor, educator, and publisher. He was born at Bassiano, Sermoneta, in 1450, and showed a predilec- tion for books and study at an early age, serving through his early manhood as a tutor. When forty years old he went to Venice to edit and prepare for printing the writings of Grreek authors previously neglected but then held in more esteem. His duties as editor made him acquainted with the 100 Aldus preferred Greek authors bookseller Torresano, with whom he and his son afterward had close business and social relations. His chroniclers do not plainly say that he began as an editor for Torresano, but that inference is warrantable. Aldus was his associate for several years; he married his daughter Maria before Aldus Manutius. Venice, 1495 Aristotle 20-point 1499, and Torresano, as father-in-law, afterward managed and preserved the printing business for the sons of Aldus. As early as 1495 Aldus was an active and independent publisher. Burger accredits him with the publication of thirty-seven books before 1501, of which the four earliest issued were in Greek type. One is an Aristotle in folio, from which the above facsimile has been taken. 101 Duties of an early publisher and printer To the prudent man of business the reprinting of Greek authors must have seemed the most quixotic of enterprises, for printing in Italy had ah-eady been overdone. When Aldus reached Venice, there were, or had been, one hundi'ed and thirty-three printers and publishers in that city ; all of them were diligently engaged in glutting the market with books of uncertain sale. The state of the trade at Rome and in other Italian book markets was no better. The duties of a printer and publisher of the fifteenth century were more arduous than they are now. The modern printer waits for orders to print ; a modern publisher invites or accepts the works he publishes; few pretend to edit the books to be produced. The early printer had to hunt up a fair copy of the volume to be printed and have it wisely edited ; his merit as printer was largely rated by his ability as an editor. The manuscripts he needed were scarce ; many had errors made by unqualified copyists; all of them called for critical reading and correction before a true copy could be given to the compositor. To buy or borrow different copies, to compare them, and prepare a new text for printing, could not be done without much time, money, and scholarship. One difiiculty in Aldus's path was his ignorance of the mechanical details of printing and publishing, for he did not enter the trade through the regular door of apprenticeship. There is no evidence, no probability, that he ever composed a page of type or printed a quire of paper with his own hands. From the technical point of view, he was not a printer, yet he was better qualified for this work than any of his rivals. Printing, as then practised, did not suffer for lack of mechan- ical skill. There was then no need of steam presses, type- setting or paper-making machines. In every branch, from type-founding to presswork, the machinery was amply good 102 Irregularities of manuscripts in Greek enough for the work to be done, and was worthily used. But there was sore need of greater scholarship — need of a printer who could do something more than servilely multiply the texts he handled. Aldus was the first of the craft who dignified it with marked editorial ability. Aldus had to create the Greek types he needed. Clumsy Greek types had been made at Rome, Milan, and Florence; one series was fitted to capitals more Gothic than Greek; another was entirely in Greek capitals; all were meanly provided with accents and full of badly formed and almost unreadable characters. It was difficult to get a good model. Some copyists wrote in uncials, some in cursive, some in the old mural capitals, and some combined different styles and added mannerisms of their own. The old saying, "It 's Greek; skip it," came not merely from the strangeness of the language but from the capriciously varying forms of the written letters. Aldus thought it necessary to design, cut, and cast an entirely new character, in which he tried to combine the legibility and grace of the small cursive letters then made by Demetrius of Crete, as shown in the Greek grammar printed in 1476 by Paravisinus of Milan, with the severe dignity of the old capitals as they were soon after shown in the Anthology printed at Florence in 1494. This was a harder task than designing types for a text to be printed in Roman or Gothic character. A text in Latin or Italian could be acceptably printed from a few letters with signs for punctuation and abbreviation, in all about sixty characters; but a text in Greek, with its com- plex accents and ligatures, according to Aldus's ideas of propriety, required about six hundred distinct characters. At the outset he fairly reproduced all the accents, and, as soon as he could, all of the ligatures. To reduce the rude 103 Aldus' s wonderful industry as editor Greek characters of the manuscript copies to symmetrical proportions, to adjust them on squared bodies so that each letter would be in harmony when combined with any other letter, was a great undertaking. He did the work fairly, but not to his own entire satisfaction. He seems to have been painfully conscious of the defects of his early Greek types, for his first books convey the notion of preliminary practice work. To him, the greatest defect was the sparsity of ligatures, which his poverty and his novice-like eagerness to do quickly something of real merit did not allow him to present with the finish or in the profusion he desired. The Aldine edition, in five volumes folio, of the works of Aristotle, was in the largest and most legible Greek type that had then been printed. Its first volume, the Organon, was published in November, 1495. Its superiority was acknowledged by Greek scholars, and Aldus was encouraged to go on with other large work. Before the year 1500, he had printed editions, in folio, of Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, Aristophanes, Dioscorides, and four more works of Aristotle, and others. To produce these books, he had to direct the making of three fonts of Greek and two of Roman types, to organize a great printing house, and superintend the work of many men, from the composition of the types to the bind- ing and selling of the books. This was work enough for a man of extraordinary ability ; but Aldus did more. He pre- pared the copy for the books, rewrote two Greek grammars and a new Greek lexicon, read all the proofs, and kept up an extended correspondence. The difficulties he met in prepar- ing the copy were most discouraging. In his preface to the Theocritus, he says the texts he consulted were so mutilated and transposed that the author himself, if living, might not have been able to unravel the tangle. It does not surprise 104 Increase of dissatisfacthn with big books one, in view of the great work he did, to read this pathetic confession in the preface to his Thesaurus of 1496 : "In this seventh year of my self-imposed task, I can truly say— yes, under oath — that I have not, dui'ing these long years, had one hour of peaceful rest." Like other early printers, he began to print in the belief that the broad-margined and large-typed folio was the true model for good books ; but he and they soon discovered that this form was not readily acceptable or salable.^ There is a flavor of querulousness in his prefaces before the year 1500, which indicates that his books did not find eager purchasers. To get the buyers he desired, he must make cheaper books. To do this, he must make smaller types, and put the matter of a large page on a small leaf. He did not shrink from the innovation. He was thoroughly saturated with the spirit of the Renaissance and was ready to give up any method of book-making which hindered a wider spread of knowledge. When fairly awakened to the necessity for changing the size of popular books, he was also prepared to change the form of the letters. Some printers at Rome and at Venice had made their earlier books popular by rejecting Gothic and printing them in light, clear, Roman letters. Why might not he be as successful with a type of entirely new shape? The model for the desired form he found in ' All of Aldus's earlier books had been to give more type and less margin. To printed from large, round, open types, with prove that he was aggrieved, he adds that broad margins — in all points fair imitations with the money paid for Aldus's five volumes of the best manuscripts of his day, and in the of Aristotle he could have bought ten of the style now commended by bibliographers. But largest and best manuscripts in Latin. Alas he was not fortunate in getting the approval for the mutabilities of fashion in book-mak- of all critics. One of his literary friends, ing! A fair manuscript of the fifteenth Urceus Codrus, in a letter written by him in century is now valued more than the printed 1498, said that he was pleased with the work- book of the same period — not that the manu- manship and the accuracy of the Aristotle, script is more legible or more accurate, but but was indignant at the price. He thought because it is rarer. The broad margin which Aldus was too prodigal of paper, and plainly Codrus disparaged is now assumed as evi- said that he would deal more fairly were he dence of the book's rarity and superiority. 105 The beginnings of Italic type the thin, sharp, inclined handwriting of the poet Petrarch. It was smaller, clearer, simpler than the Gothic, more con- densed and paper- saving than the round-faced Roman. It promised to he the needed character to present to a reader the most matter in the least space. ^ He took this writing to Francesco Raiholini of Bologna, an expert goldsmith at Venice, and had him redraw the characters in typographical proportion, and cut the punches for the types he wanted. The cutting of the new character was not so tedious as the cutting of punches for Greek, but it had its own difficulties, especially in the adjustment of inclined letters on square bodies. Labor would have been lighter if Aldus had been content with one form only of a letter. He was not. The vitiated taste which induced him to make ligatures for Greek, compelled him to conjoin two letters on one body. His idea of a popular character was a close imitation of stiff or set penmanship, the beauty of variety, not of uniformity. The first work that was printed in the new character was an edition of Virgil, in octavo,^ published in April, 1501. The introduction of Italic type only is conceded to Aldus, but his service in contributing another useful series in the small capitals that now constitute a part of every modern font of Roman book type has been overlooked and undervalued. 'The first attempt at an imitation of the preceded Aldus in adopting the octavo page marked peculiarities of quickly written for printed books, but did not succeed in letters was made in 1491 by Alessandro making it an established size. Horatio Paganino, who set up his press first of all at Brown, The Venetian Printing Press, p. 33 Toscolana on the Lake of Garda, but sub- and note on p. 48. seqnently removed it to Venice and printed "It was correctly called an octavo, for the there as late as 1531. His earlier types leaf is one eighth of the sheet on which it were not what we now call Italic. Brown was printed; but the unschooled reader, who defines them as a "peculiar upright Italic," is more familiar with the larger size (six by having nothing in common with the Aldine nine inches) of the modern octavo, would Italic; but the type he used in 1527, of rate it as a small eighteen-mo, for the leaf of which Brown shows a facsimile, is slanting this Virgil, slightly trimmed, does not mea- and like the Italic of Aldus. Paganino had sure four by six American inches. 106 Aldine Italic was soon counterfeited The three correlated series of tall capitals, small capitals, and lower-case of Roman, with inclined capitals and lower-case of Italic, now provided by all type-founders for our text-type, enable the printer to make easy the changes in the appear- ance of words that are demanded by many writers. With this Italic Aldus printed his little books almost to the entire exclusion of Roman lower-case, and his preference for this style was continued by his sons when they removed to Rome. Italic was a rival to Roman for about a century as a proper text letter for books ; afterward it was reserved for prefaces and introductions; it now meets steadily dimin- ishing use as an emphasizing letter or in side-notes. The new character was successful. By Italians it was called Aldino or Aldine, in honor of the maker. In France, where it was counterfeited, and where there was a motive to suppress the name of the maker, it was called Italic, the name by which it is now known to French and English read- ers. In a decree dated November 14, 1502,^ the senate of Venice gave Aldus exclusive right to the use of this char- acter, and threatened counterfeiters with fines and the con- fiscation of printing materials. This patent, which was confirmed by Pope Alexander VI, on December 17, 1502, was subsequently renewed for fifteen years by Pope Julius II in January, 1513, and by Pope Leo X in the next year. These patents gave no real protection. The punch -cutter, Raibolini, made duplicates for the rival printer, Girolamo Soncino, of Fano, which he at once put to use in an imitated edition of Aldus' s Virgil, stealing in one venture not only the new form of letter but the editorial work of Aldus. The Giunta, a printing association at Florence, also made an imitation of Italic, with which they printed many books. 'A patent of July 23, 1500, is noticed in Didot's Aide Manuce, p. 166, 107 Aldine Italw is open and readable A printer at Lyons reproduced this Virgil, with other Aldine classics, in a close imitation of this Italic, and with the trade- mark of Aldus, and sold the hooks wherever he could as the work of Aldus's presses. Aldus could not pre- "EyphdtftUtiier.Kmo ^m>CCCCC.yi i- • n Die utro.^.MenfK Stptemhnuexpmfis knf/li vent this piracy, nor could mnbirtholomcitr^ the state help him. He Imprint of one of the counterfeiters at Lyons ''The Honest Man, COuld do UO mOrC thaU Bartholomew Trot ' publish a protest and a warning against counterfeiters, which first appeared under date of March 16, 1503.^ The facsimile of a page of Statins, a book (plate 27) of the same size as Virgil, and printed from the same types in 1502, when the types were but slightly worn, will fully show the peculiarities of his early Italic. The printed page has the appearance of leaded types (or of types separated by enlarg- ing space between the lines) but it is not leaded. The char- acters were cast on a body nearly as large as that known to American and English printers as 12-point, but the short letters, like the m and a, which constitute the greater part of the font, are at least two sizes smaller than is now usual for text-types on this body. The new Italic character was cut with plain intent to get many letters in a line. AU the '"When I undertook to furnish good is inferior and has a bad odor. The types books to lovers of letters, I thought that I do not displease the eye, but have French need only see that the books issued by our peculiarities and deformed capitals. The Academy sltould be as correct as care could letters are not connected, as mine are, in imi- make them. . . . But four times within the past tation of Avriting." The Lyons type-founder seven years I have had to protect myself slanted the capitals as is now done, against the treachery of my workmen. ... I As Italic types did not appear in print have defeated their plots and punished their before the Virgil of 1501, Italic may not be perfidy. Yet, in the city of Lyons, books are classified as of the fifteenth century, but it fraudulently printed under my name. These was surely not devised in haste with little Ijooks do not contain the name and place of thouglit and study. It was prol)ably planned tlie real printer, but are made in imitation by Aldus and matured by the puncli-cutter of mine, so that the unwary reader will be- for at least a year before tla- iiriuting of lieve them printed in Venice. . . . Their paper the Virgil. 108 Plate 2 7 THEBAIDOS T dlU id^nti crudelif Diua feueros A duerdt mltus ■yndntamm forts fedehett C ocytvniuxtd' relolufa'q^; uertice crmes L amyere fulfureds ipcrmferat dn^ibus und,'antly praised practical for this folly. His types, like those by his admirers. Some said, in all serious- of his contemporaries, were of lead and tin, ness, that their beauty was owing to the silver with possibly a little antimony. In speak- of wliich they were made. They had noted ing of his printed books, which were in inii- the white, silvery appearance of his newly tation of handwriting, Aldus says that they cast types, and had conchulcd ihat tlicy were were made "with a hand of tin"— meaning made of that precious metal. Aldus was too that the types were largely composed of tin. 112 The device of Aldus Torresano. His skill in the printing of woodcuts, and even in showing to advantage the beauty and delicacy of well-cut type, was inferior to that shown by the printers, of illustrated missals and books of devotion. Aldus had no enthusiasm for this department of printing. His first experiment in this difficult field was his last. This experimental book, the Reveries of Polyphilus, a stout folio of two hundred and thirty-four leaves, fully illustrated with designs from an unknown but able master, possibly Benedetto Mantegna, was published in December, 1499. The amatory sentiment is extravagant, yet that is subordinate to the author's desire to display his knowledge of art and mythology. Among the illustrations of this book is one of a dolphin twining about an anchor. It pleased Aldus, who at once adopted it as his trade-mark, showing it for the first time in his edition of Dante of 1502, and afterward in many fine books. Erasmus, explain- ing the device, with the motto (added subsequently) Festina lente, says the dolphin signified speed, the anchor deliberation, and was an exemplification of the aphorism, "Make haste slowly." This illustration is taken literally, faults and all. from the Statins of 1502. Four variations of this design were afterward made; two are more ornate, but none is better than this. Aldus died in 1515 in comparative poverty. He had the money-getting but not the money -keeping faculty. Whether he sold folios at high price, or octavos at low 113 The Aldim house had worthy smcessors price, the result was the same. Directly or indirectly, he gave to the book buyer quite as much as he received. In 1529 Andrew Torresano died. His sons and those of Aldus continued the work of their fathers, but did not agree, and pubhshed few books. In 1540 the sons of Torresano withdrew; the books of the house after this date bear the imprint of Aldus's sons. Paul Manutius, the youngest, then twenty-eight years old, was manager. He drew about him many learned men, and kept the favor of eminent Italian ecclesiastics and princes. He reopened the Academy, and with its aid published valuable books. But wars and the waning commercial prosperity of Venice caused his removal to Rome, where he was cordially received and provided for by Pope Pius IV. Itre dii I nterddone daltagliarc dela fccburc. Pi lino dal peftello : Deucrra dalle granare iquali dii guardanti cbtxo alia forza del dio SiIuano:e coferuata la dona i parto ct cod cbno alia crudelta deldio noceuo Ic no uanrbc la cuftodia ddli buoi fcno foflcro pccbi o u&o piu cotra uno et fe no repugniafTcro allui afpro brurro et orribili: come feluatico.fi come c6 cotra ni fegm diculture.Oreequefta la inocc da delli dii:c quefta la cocoidia^ or Ton quefti lidii faluteuole dcllc cittade: piu dafcbennrc cbe ligiuocbi ndli tlieatn^ Quado il malcbio et la fcia IT cogiiigo no mi fipone ildio Giugarino:bene c6 pomfi quefto: e (Imcna lamoglic acala il dio Domiduco.Ttado ella incafa ildio Doiao.pcr cbe fna colmarito ladea M a tuma.Orcbe piu rincbiedc^Perdonifi a la uergognia buaiia:faaa laltre cofe la cocupifaenzadellacame etdcl fanguc nellecto et nclluogo fegretororpcbc fcii pieillecto di turba didii:quado fcnc pto no lifcruidore dclle nozze:etpofempic illecfo diqucfti dii.-no pcbe plaloreprd'e tia fiapefata maggior cura delloncftadc ma addo cbe piu agicuotmcre fia tolta la uirginita alia feia inferma dd fexo et paurofa ddla noui ta paiuto delli dii ad corre la dea Vcrginenfeiet lldio padre: Subigo.et ladea madre Prcma:et la dea Partundatet V enerc et Pnapo.Or cbe cdo.fe alpoftufo luomo faticatefi i quel lopera couenia efTere aiutato dalli dii or nobafterebbe alcuno unfoloroucro alcu na una et no piu. Or farebbe poca Tola Venere laquali po fi cbiama cofirp cbe faza lafua poteza lafcia no (i puo fuer 2inare:feglibu6i ano puto difacdapiu cbe no anno lidii :omd quado credono cotari du mafcbi et fcie ecre pfenh et fo praftanri aqud fartoifiuergogniano ra to:cbe luomo meno fi comuoua et la fe mma piu rcfifta.Et derto feuc pfcnte la dea uirgincnfeprope ilfigillo uirgmalc ctieueiTdio fubigo pfubgiugare etfot to metere lamoglie almanto.etfeue lade a Prema p pmerla cbe no fi comuoua'f Or ladea Pa^tunda cbcui fa iui <'uergo gnifiuadafe fuon.facciaqualcbi cofa ilmanto.Molto edifonefta cofa cbcquel lo pcbe e cbiamata ladea partuda aoe il forarenlfacaa altro cbdmanto.Ma for fe po fdafcia ftare incafa pcbe dia edea: ct no dio. po cbe fc foflc mafcbio et cbi aniaflcfj ildio piudo:piu tofto bifognie rebbealmanto dichiamare altro aiutori o cotra dilui p faluare loneftade ddamo glic:cbc nobilbgnia alia dona iparto c6 traldio Siluano.Mapcbe dico lo quefto codofiacofa cbcui fia ancbePriapo gra diffimo mafcbio :fopra ilcui grandiffio ct difonefrifTimo falano do e panno in hiogo di bracbe fi faacua fcdere lafpofa aiifaza bonefti(Tima:ct nligiofifl'ima: di buonedoneet matrone.Vadano an cora (Torzanfi c6 ogni fottilita quafi di ftinguaela tbeologiaauile dallafauo lofa : Ic cirra ddli ihearri :gli tcmpli dale cafe facnicbe.lcfacre ddli ponrifid dalli ucrfi dalli pocn Ic cofe boneftc dale brut te icucrad dalle fallaci.lcgrauc dalle leg gieri:lutili dalle giullarefcbe.etle cofe da apetire dale cofc dafcbifare. J ntcndiam© bene qudlo cbe fanno. ben conofcono cbe qudla theatrica et fauolofa tbeolo giadifdcndedaqueftaciuile: et rifpon ddidelli ucrfi ddli Pocticome limbal zaffe ncllo fpecbio. Etpero dicbiara ta quefta. la quale nonbanno ardire di condamnarc ; qudla cbe c fua ira magine.ct afTimiglialefi riprcndcndo CI biafimaado piu liberamente . Si cbe queglt.-cbc intctidono quello cbe efli uogliono dire biafimino ancbe quefta auilc.ddla quale la fauolofa eimmagi Antonio Mlscomini. Florence, c. 1483 S. Agostino : de la Citta di Deo ll-point ANTONIO MISCOMINI Italian birth and training are indicated by this name. When and where Miscomini acquired the ability that enabled him to establish and direct a printing house in Florence is not on record, but he soon proved an efficient manager. He began his work as printer at Venice in 1472 with two part- ners or financial associates. Four years afterward he was continuing this business in the same city, but without part- ners. Neither his name nor those of his partners appear in the books that he is known to have printed at Venice. In 1481 he removed his printing house to Florence, where he printed some sixty books of value during the following thir- teen years. Apparently he had close relations in business with the Ripoli Press, and with booksellers of Florence, who often suppressed the names of the printers. This facsimile of Miscomini's type and page is from a rare first Italian edition of St. Augustine's City of God.^ The book does not give the name, date, or place of its printer, but Proctor decides "at Florence, not after 1483." The type of this book of three hundred and twenty-four leaves is a compressed Roman of firm face on 1 1 -point body, apparently intended to imitate the firmness of contemporary devotional works in Black-letter.^ The composition and press work are of merit. They reveal the increasing desire of readers for simplicity and more compactness in print. 'It has signatures, but no catchwords or ^Proctor has identified five distinct faces running titles. Paper is sized and of fair of type in his collection of Miscomini's color. Chapters have large pen-made ini- books, but this St. Augustine is printed tials at appropriate headings. Hyphens at with one face only. Capital letters in a mass the end of lines to indicate a divided word appear only in the Deo Gratias on the last are rare, but Arabic figures for paging are used. page. 121 Plate 32 PIISECVNDI PONT-MAX. DE CONVEN TV MANTVANO EPISTOLA PRIMA. IVSEPISCOPVS SERVVS SER uorutn del uniuerfis & finguhs Cbnfti fideli bus has nofh-as litteras infpecfhii'is falutem 6C apoftolica benedi(itionem.Vocauit nos pius & tniTericors deus ad facram beati Petn fedem: lucef^j dilecftiflimi filii fui domini noftri Ibe fu cbrifti dcbilibus bumeris noftns comiTit in tcms:pafturam gfegi's fui credidit; & alto fludluantem pelago fidelis populi rcgere nauicula lufTit .Gram's baec nobis farcma eft : nec noftrae ui'res funt : quae tanti regiminis ferre molem fufficiancPi-ocellofum eft ualde mare atq? mfeftumrper quod nobis nauigandum eft.Nutat & fatifat carina: qua uebimur. Trepidant ac deficiunt remiges ; uentique aduerfi funt: 8i. in Ijornda tempeftate lacllamur ♦ Nam pofteaquam Conftantino pnnape pax reddita eft ecclefii'smunquam dommici gregis'ea prefTura fuic:quam modo cernimusmunquam adeo coartatos cattbolicae fideilimites fupior aetas uidit. Exiit olim in omnc terram Tonus apoftolorum: dC in fines orbi's terrae uerba eoril. Subiecerunt omnes reges terrae:omnes tribusromnes populi colla fua Cbrifto domino: dC falutan's fidei facramentis imbu ti gloria i excelfis deo per unigenitum filium eius;& in terns pacem bonae uoluntatis bominibus acclamauere . Surrexit dc inde annos lam fupra ocJlmgentos pfeudo propbeta Mabume tes m Arabia: qui blafpbemas facratiYTimam trinitatem: non folum contnbules fuos : fed aegy^ptios atqj omnem S^n'am 4 uera ortbodoxa religione auertit:officinam noftrae falutis , m qua deus nofter pro noftra redemptione pretiofum (angui nem fudit:barbarus boftis inuarit:le Vtra^ parrium foluat & deponat ftatim fadla contraditione findicatoribus antedidlis didtos denariosJn fine autemq (tionis reftitui debeant parti uidtrici illud quod idepofucrit a Sindicatoribus i totfi uelppte; qua obtinuerit uel uicerit fecudu q? cognitu fuerit p didtos^ fulcs. Et ii effet tutor uel Curator Minorum uel boriorum uel hazreditatis uel lirisfuel alius admiiiiftrator:qui luraret corpotaliter fe no Iiaberefnec poP fc habere dc bonis tutella: Curae uel adminiftrationis dldtam pecuniam dc.^ ponendlftunc ille talis adminiftrator non tciieatur foluere didlam oecunia5{ uel aliquid deponere[Sed tamen alius litigans cu tali tutore uel adminiftrato re non excufetur a depoiitione prardidla* CQui litigans cum prardidlis fi obtineat in caufa non relinquat cius dcpofitum penes findicatores | fi no i bonis tutelle Curse uel adminiftratiois fint bona alicuius gnis ultra illud qd In fententia dedudtum fucritfin quibus pofljtConfequi Solutionem de didla pccuniajad quam confequendam magiftratus fauere polTrnt uti & coram co fulibus{& coram quolibet magiftratu[& ad id magiftratus fib! pra:ftent fauo rabilem iuftitiam, CSi uero didhis ui ei aligb^agel* 6 celo cadctib^alii fmanetes fuef tpfi'rmati.'^cefTit ex mia dci. 1 Etvf(^ ad nu. vi.tua.i. vitas iuftitie tue p qua ageli fupbietes cod' dert i K aere caliginofovbi gnanf nubesr^pt! qd dicrif aeree ptates m Exaltarc tc.p celd t iri itelligif ois creafa qua cxcellctia dci excedit i ifinitd. n Vt libercf . Hic idpitvP i hc.^ i tra. bie. vbi dd f ddit rdej fue cxftatois q e fibtuto f gni iti^ti meli? qua ex^mit ^mo p modd petitionis a deo dices, n Vt liberenf ic. x expo naf ifta Ifa vfj ad fine pf.ficut fupra cxpofita eft pf.lix. G.iii cor mcu: dtabo^cfpfalla in^glia mea.Exurge^pfalteriu et cithara; cxurga'diluculo. C6fitebor''tibi i* ppfis dm: et pfalla tibi i natoib?. Qjiia^magna e ff celos mia tua; ct'vfq? ad nubes Veritas tua.Exal tare^Tf celos de'et ff ocm t!ra gla tua ; vt"libcrcf dilecti tui.Saluum fee dexfo tua :"ct exaudi me: Jde' locut' e i fco fuo.ExuItabo et 6i- uidi ficbima:etpuallc tabernaclb ru dimetiar^Me? e galaad&me' eft manaflfes: et tpliai fufceptio capitis mei.Iuda rex me?: moab lebes fpei mee. In idumea cxten da calciamentu meu: mihi alieni gene amici fci fut. Quis deducet me in citatemunita: qs deducet mevfcp i idumeai^None tu de? q fpulifti nos:et n exibis de' i virtu Ulric Gering. Paris, 1483 Postils of Nicolas de Lyra on the Psalter 14-point and 12-point TYPES OF FRANCE ULRIC GERING Small types as signs have always been needed to serve for the marks of reference to guide the eye of the reader from a word in the text to its explanation in the side-note. These reference marks or letters, now known to printers as supe- riors, appear in the text of the accompanying facsimile of the edition of the Postils made by TJlric Gering of Paris, but they do not appear in the notes. The types of the text are on 14-point body ; the notes are on 12 -point body. In the side-notes of small type a large space was left by the compositor for a mark of reference, which it was intended should be filled in with pen by the buyer of the book, who was expected to make a red-ink ring or other visible mark in the right place before the note. In this edition of the Postils the design, proportion, and fitting up of matrices to the molds have not been quite so adroitly done as in some books of Italian printers of that period, but the general effect is pleasing. Manuscript books of the fifteenth century showed graces of penmanship in finials and flourishes that were impossible of reproduction in type, and the early printers wisely declined to imitate them or even to make varied forms of the same letter. They appreciated their beauty but shunned their additional expense, for each new character compelled the making of a new punch and matrix, and each new character was a hindrance to the type- caster and the compositor. It 131 Influence of copperplate on type-founding was then wisely decided that two or more forms of the same letter would not be of service to the reader, and that an in- flexible uniformity in the appearance of the same letter was of more importance than an exhibit of the graceful fancies of the penman or designer. Utility more than artistic caprice was the object sought. The letters long f and final s were exceptions to duplication. Type-founders rightfully thought it enough to cut punches for the abbreviations of syllables then made by recognized copyists. Even the diphthongs 86 and Oi were represented occasionally by the addition of a stroke over the e. In discarding the finical graces of penmanship, Sweinheim, Numeister, and the Speyer brothers may have gone too far toward sturdy simplicity. They intended to make a print plainer and bolder than manuscript, in the belief that bold- ness would be more acceptable to the reader. They studi- ously avoided hair-lines and other features of indistinctness, but their letters, easily discerned, were needlessly bold and rough. Sturdy types always had the merit of legibility ; yet they were disliked by collectors of taste for lack of neatness. Typography had met already a formidable competitor in the new art of copperplate printing, which was then produc- ing pictures and decorations in a style unattainable fi-om types. It was soon found, however, that copperplate was the slower and more expensive process, and that it could be most wisely applied to the reproduction of maps and pictures. Yet there were readers who did see that it was possible to print more neatly from cleaner types — to transfer to paper lines free in movement and as sharp and delicate as those made by an expert penman. Contrasted with prints then made by some engravers on copper, the engraving of Jenson, Ratdolt, and Renner seemed relatively coarse. 132 Beginning of the feminine style of typography Remier's Quadragesimale letter is an attempt to imitate in type tiie fine lines of a penman. In other books by Renner we find initial letters designed and carefully engraved on wood, and even attempts at pictures, as in his representa- tion of the Doge's palace at Venice, but they were inferior to many copperplate prints of that period. The German style of engraving on wood did not prove attractive to Italian readers : figures and draperies were stiff" and angular; few attempts were made to show roundness of form by conventional shading. A new style of engrav- ing on wood was introduced at Florence in 1490. It had thin outlines and great openness and showed many refine- ments of delicacy, much to the improvement of all pictorial subjects. Designers of type were made to see from the new style that type was not made more intelligible by thick lines, and that white space for relief was really needed in types. Copperplate could not and did not supplant typography, but it did exert at the outset a wholesome influence on its improvement. It showed that characters to be legible need not be coarse, and it did stimulate designers of types to be more careful in drawing and proportioning letters. Copperplate was long regarded as an indispensable adjunct to the best typography. Architectural title-pages, initials, and head-bands were made by this process to the neglect of engraving on wood. Writers on typography like Moxon in 1683, and Fournier in 1766, preferred copperplate to wood for illustrations of their tools. For many years engraving on wood was regarded as an inferior art, and artistic merit was conceded almost exclusively to engravers on copper. Type-founders were induced to make types needlessly light, delicate, and faint almost to indistinctness. 133 CLAUDE GARAMOND The rapidly increasing popularity of Italic suggested to a few type-founders that the lightness and openness produced by its thin lines might be wisely repeated in a reconstruction of upright Roman letter. Experience had proved that thick- stemmed and black-faced types, whether of Gothic or Roman forms, did not favor easy reading or produce pleasing print. They grew tiresome. Ratdolt and Renner had shown that it was possible to cast and print types that contained some thin hair-lines and that a more cunning union of the thick and thin lines of each letter would be helpful in producing a type that would show some of the delicacy of fine penman- ship even if it did not exhibit its full freedom. The unusual sharpness of printed line so easily produced by the new art of copperplate engraving had also increased a growing dis- satisfaction with the coarser lines of typography. There were some readers who thought that touches of grace could be safely added to needlessly rough types. Why must they be so offensively sturdy ? Why should curves be stiff, lines uneven in thickness, and letters out of true proportion with one another? It was not in Venice or Rome but in Paris that the more graceful Roman types desired by the critical reader first appeared. Improvements in Italian printing and book- making arts had culminated with Aldus. Dm-ing the first quarter of the sixteenth century Italian typography declined from good to bad, from bad to worse. France became the leader in all the departments of printing, and 134 Plate 37 La decouverte de 1 imprimerie separe le monde ancien du monde moderne. FiRMIN DiDOT. Roman type of Claude Garamond, Paris About 42-polnt Exact date for the cutting of these types cannot be given. It was probably about 1520 L,a decouverte de I imprimerie separe. le monde ancien du monde moderne. FiRMIN DiDOT. Italic type of Claude Garamond, Paris Styles of Garamond and Granjon Claude Garamond was everywhere conceded as the true master in type-founding/ These facsimiles of Garamond's type have been copied from the Histoire Economique de I'lmprimerie of Paul Mel- lottee, who certifies them as impressions fi*om types cast in the original matrices swaged by Garamond and now pre- served in the National Printing House at Paris. The letters, too few fairly to present the full merit of his alphabet, are enough to indicate his skill and good taste. Adherence to established usage is noted in the ci'amped s and a. The thick- stemmed large capitals and the dwarfed small capitals may be even now offenses to typographical critics, but the general effect of the Eoman and Italic is that of lightness and clearness, with a symmetry attained by no previous designer. Each series shows the sharp hair-line and serif admired by lovers of copperplate prints. The Roman is large, round, and easy to read; the Italic has pen-like graces; they are worthy rivals of the best work of Jenson or Van Dijck, Caslon or Bodoni.- 1 Garamond, an enthusiast about types, trious men, and has been recompensed with still affectionately known in France as the many beautiful eulogies after his death." "father of type-founders," was the first to ^ ^^nother French improver of Koman type make type-founding a separate department was Robert Granjon, attached to the Laco- of typography, and he gave it his exclusive longe type-foundry of Lyons, who designed attention. He had been taught the scientific a new style of Roman type about the middle construction and combination of letters by of the sixteenth century. It was of lighter Geofroy Tory, a French artist of Italian edu- face, even more open and graceful than the cation and the author of Champfleurj', a book style of Garamond. Granjon made designs written to give exact rules for their correct for or furnished types to Christopher Plantin form. Garamond was commissioned by of Antwerp and the printing-house of the Francis i in 1515 to make the caracteres Vatican, but they proved of frail form and regii for the Imprimerie Royale (still surviv- soon went out of service. Tastes change ing as the Imprimerie Rationale) and did capriciously. After two centuries of neglect make many sizes and faces of Roman, Italic, the Granjon face was revived for a short Greek, Hebrew, etc. Bernard, in his Histoire time during the first half of the nineteenth de I'lmprimerie Royale, pp. 11, 12, ironically century by Louis Perrin of Lyons, a printer quotes the following extract from the writ- of marked ability now almost forgotten, who ings of Antoine Vitre of 1655: " Garamond printed a few books and pamphlets of merit, ended his life [1561] in extreme misery, but but his types have since been put asitle for he has been put on the honor roll of illus- modern types of inferiority. 136 LARGE AND SMALL TYPES Engraved initial letters, some of admirable design, are to be found in a few books printed dm-ing the last quarter of the fifteenth century; but the type-founded Roman capital letters of plain form and of a larger size than the types of the text are not common. They were not needed, for it was not then customary to print the title of the book on a separate leaf preceding its text. When this practice of giving a separate leaf for the title-page did begin, the capitals of the text were set up in the middle of the first blank ORTHOGRAPHIA ET FLEXVJOIs CTIOMVM GR AECARVM 0= V E N E T 1 1 J I N A E D I B V 5 MM[VM APVO STArrVM CVM ACCENTIB.ET GE NERIB EX V ARII$ ALDI. MENJE AV G VfTO-M-DII- ^ C^v Ve^av-^ ^ dutumeftctin hocutPncaierk- TORIB. title in Statius of 1502 Imprint at end of Statins of 1502 page, but rarely at its top or head, and this treatment made what printers now call a bastard title. The small capital letters so used for the bastard title now seem insufficient as to prominence, and but paltry ushers to a book of value. The title-page that gives in large type and on a separate leaf in the front of the book its name in full, with that of author, editor, illustrator, and the place and date of printing, is now an indispensable part of every book, but the earlier printers did not foresee the importance of this information. Following the usages of the copyists of the time, whose 137 Full titles and bastard titles names usually were of small value to the buyer of the book, the printers put their own names, with place and date, in a little paragraph of small type at the end of the text, where it was often obscured by index matter that followed too closely. Some printers added their device or trade-mark; others omitted all information. It often happened that the buyer of the old book searched through many leaves near its end before he could be sure of its proper title and of the names of the author and printer. The new craft of printing compelled many changes in fashions of book-making. Book buyers wanted the name of the book, as well as that of the printer and publisher, exposed in large type on the first leaf of the book, so that all could be seen at first glance. By general consent the name of the book always had the most conspicuous type, but the name of the printer was not always prominent. In some books this name was suppressed. To secure the needed buyers a publisher of resources was needed. Bastard titles in Black-letter, sometimes beginning with a huge intricate initial, had been made at early dates in Germany, France, and Holland; but the full title-page upon a separate leaf, that also specified the name of the book, its author and publisher, place and date, sometimes with a punning or inappropriate device, was not in common use before the middle of the sixteenth century. The Froschover facsimile^ of 1543 on the following page is of a form then approved; but its large Roman types were modeled more after the style of Garamond than of Jenson. In these letters note the longer protraction of the thick strokes before they change to a thinner line, the sparsity of true thin strokes or ' The device of the frog in tlie title is a in identifying an edition of the book with the pun on tlie name of Froschover (in German, name of its printer. Punning devices were croaker or frog), intended to assist the buyer frequently used by early English printers. 138 Plate 38 BIBLIA SACROSANCTA TESTA metiVeteris &:Noui,c facraHebraeo rum lingua Gr2Ecorumquc fontibus. confulcis fimul orchodoxis inter precib.rcligiofiffime translaca in fermoncm Lacinum. Auchores omnem^ tonus open's rationem exfubk^a intelliges Pr3cfadonc* PAVLVSROM. XV. Quacunc^ fcri'pta funt, ad noftram doArinam fcrfpta funtjUtptr pd tiendam dC confolattonem fcripturarum fpem habeaniu$< TIGVRI EXCVDEBAT. C. FROSCHOVBRV* ANNO M» D. XlillU C. Froscliover. Zuricli, 1543 Why large types are rare as book texts hair-lines, and the stubbiness of the serifs. The types had been designed for wear as well as to be easily read and not at all to show the fancies of the designer. For more than two centuries the full title-page then coming in vogue showed large and light-faced types in all lines intended for promi- nence. Types with thicker strokes and bolder face were occasionally made, but they did not meet with equal favor; they were disliked by the critical as too suggestive of the gloomy Black-letter or Gothic, which was gradually passing out of use in southern Europe and Great Britain. Large types of capitals with lower-case on bodies of about the sizes of 24- 28- or 32-point had admirers in the six- teenth centmy, but they could be used only for the texts of the very large books then produced to please readers who valued them for show more than service. The small book that could readily be held in one hand, preferred by readers, was then amply provided by printers. Large text-types are rarely selected now, for they make books expensive and unhandy.^ Another hindrance to the selection of large types for small pages was caused by the increasing width of the new styles of type then in favor. The types of Caslon that had been 'The present neglect of the 16-point body it made the even spacing of lines more diffi- for text-type by American and English type- cult and largely diminished their earnings, founders and printers may need explanation. It was decided by compositors in America and Thissize and the larger size of 18-pointcan be Great Britain that all types larger than pica seen in many small octavos and duodecimos should be measured and paid for as if set in of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pica, the name then given to the 12-poiut If adjudged too large for the text itself, it body. By this rule the composition of rela- was selected for the preface and introduction, tively few words in 18-point would cost Every author and publisher appreciated the more than the composition of many more ' attractiveness of large letter and made use Avords in 12-point. When authors and of it when it was practicable; but in the publishers found that large type largely nineteenth century type on 18-point body increased expense of composition as well as rarely appeared upon a small leaf. Type- that of paper, presswork, and binding, large setters disliked it and properly asked an types went out of fashion for the ordinary increased price for its slower con)position ; book. 140 Large text-types make books large and unhandy approved for many years were thin and closely fitted to one another, permitting many letters to be put in one line; but the newer styles of Bodoni and Didot, as modified by English founders, that followed the Oaslon fashion, were rounder and wider, and they permitted fewer letters to the line. This increased width often compelled wider and uneven spacing between words, with the frequent occurrence of the "hound's teeth," or irregular gaps of white space between words in proximate lines, that were an offense to critical readers. A type of smaller body seemed the readiest way to avoid this blemish. Authors and publishers who desired an open and readable page for a small leaf had to be content with 12- or 14-point, leaded or double leaded. In their grading of book sizes type-founders skipped from 14-point to 18 -point. The intermediate body of 16-point, often used now by Continental printers, has been neglected for many years in America and England as a text-type for books. Large types for texts are now in slight request : the body of 18-point is reserved for occasional quartos and folios; 16- point is a size unknown in many large book printing houses ; 14-point and 12-point are approved for sumptuous books in quarto and large octavo; but 10-point and 11 -point are oftener selected for the ordinary book. Although small types are common, largeness of type is still considered a fea- ture of merit in a comparison of old with new books. Even when admirably planned and printed the duodecimo of 10- point type is rated by many critics as but a petty produc- tion; it is the portly folio in great type that is the grand book. The old masterpieces, so-called, in large type, over- shadow smaller books, as may be more clearly understood after a comparison of two editions of Livy — one of the fifteenth and the other of the seventeenth century, of which facsimiles 141 Plate a9 Item Jurficum. prx auorum Jupcr- bin arque oplhns nec leges qulcquan: cffent, nec inscillrarus. acciiravit. 3c iir fccundlsaurlbus Jcclpl oracionem animad-ertir , 6c infimorum quoque llbertaci yravem elTe fuperblam co- lum ; lecem exrempln promulgavir ; perruUrque, Ut in (ingulos annos Ju.licei leeerenrur . ne quLs bit.-.- nlum continuum juicxeflcr. Caere, rum, quanram eo f^i^o ad plebem proprias (imultates Irriwvir. Vef»l- lialiA pabllc.i parrim neeligentU diU- bebanrur; parrl.n prxdx ac dlvlful primljum quibiiCrtam ScmagiftrarU bui erant ; quln 8c pecunia . qui la ftlpendlum Romanis fiw quoque an- r . rrlburumque cpriv l^poftquatr fumereni , quantum peaiJatus aver- reret; omnibus refiduls pccumls exj- ftis n .bufo prlvatis remlOb . ftrls lo- cuplerim rempub. fore ad ve aver- CCQdc fufpicionis caufla, prtmlstC' ad fu- rej fcvcnrium fjiHonibus. Vi/um dcinde Cercin.^ cum , randcm alla- Cap. X L I X. Romanl le«ati quuin In fenaru expofulffenr . Camptrtrtra Tatribiis Romanir efTe , cf 'Philip* piim re^cm ante j^nnitale m^xi- me aecenjtfm, beUum poptilo Romano feciffie, c-" """^^ literal nuncio^ue ab eo ad yl?jriochiim re^^ent profeaosi hand qitietitru"7 ante , cju.:m belitrm toio orbe terraruni confciffet. Ne his debere impunc effc ,fi fjtisfacere Car^ th/fcinlenfes pnpulo Ro^nano ^veUevtt Mihi't eorum fua-rolnrrta;e , mcpM* blico eoTi/illo faCJii/iJ effe Carthagl- nlenfes refponderunr , quicquM Xf ccnfulfTent Romanl f^uroa ?nif : excepnilque ^ condi7or!l patrU, vir pcnerc I pervenif : excepnu*^ bus Carrhaglnis , i paucos moraius dies i Antloctd navi- Diiniel Elzevir. Amsterdam, Livy 4i-point 1678 Crudity of many early types here appear in plates 14 and 39. The Livy^ neatly printed by Daniel Elzevir of Amsterdam, in 1678, on a leaf 3ix 5i inches, seems of small merit to the collector when compared with the grand Livy of John of Speyer, in two volumes folio. In neat mechanical workmanship and accuracy of text the Elzevir Livy is much the better book, even if it is in petty type and on thin paper; it contains more matter, and has been more carefully planned and made. Early types may be justly admired as the praiseworthy work of inexperts under peculiar difficulties; but no lover of exact handicraft can commend them as faultless, or even as close approximations toward ideal perfection. The types made by Sweinheim and Pannartz of Rome and by John and Wendelin of Speyer at Venice suffer in comparison with those made soon afterward by Jenson and Ratdolt, de Zanis and de Tortis. A gradual improvement in every department of typography is noticeable in the facsimiles. Types of 1485 are, as a rule, more carefully designed and founded than those of 1470, even when they appear in books that have been damaged by too careless composition and press work. Brown says that, after 1480, the presswork, paper, and binding of Italian printers were often inferior. This is true ; but the types of more expert printers of the next genera- tion in France and Holland show steady improvement in design, engraving, and casting. ^ The Elzevir Livy is in two columns, and This edition of Livy, made to be sold at low the closely following chapters are graced with price to poor buyers, was then held in light engraved initial letters. Its type, on a body esteem and somewhat contemned. Its editor, then rated as diamond (about 4^-point), is of Gronovius, thus wrote to Heinsius: "I do light face and good design, equally meritori- wish that my Livy had been published in an- ous and harmonious in its capitals and Italic, other form." Heinsius replies that the "petty Presswork is even in color and impression types of this book give great displeasure to throughout its seven hundred and eighty- the scholars of your city." Another critic, eight pages ; paper is hard, thin, snappy, tough, Le Febvre, adds this : "I care nothing for the and opaque ; it is carefully sewed, sections white Elzevir paper, or for the beautiful print- are flexible, and all leaves open easily. ing; I see only petty type on a niggardly leaf." 143 NOTES AND COMMENTS TYPE -FOUNDING Few early printers received thorough training. Proficient as some were in the practice of one or two departments of printing, more had hut slender knowledge of the details of the diverse crafts required for the making of hooks. Many of the German printers were type-setters or type-casters only. They hegan their purposed practice of printing in Italy by seeking the aid of wealthy men who would he helpful as partners or money-lenders, and provide for the payment of skilled mechanics in other useful crafts. Implements needed for the full development of the art were necessary, hut could not be bought in stores of mer- chandise. Types modeled after letters of manuscript selected for their adaptability to type printing must be made to order and symmetrically engraved on hard metal punches. Their reversed duplicates in the form of matrices must be swaged in copper, and all matrices accurately fitted to one another and to one general mold of hard metal, which was quite diffi- cult of construction. These manipulations compelled the printer who knew only how to set and print the types that had been made for him to seek the services of a goldsmith or worker in fine metals. The casting of types from the mold and their composition in lines and pages were subse- quently done in the improvised printing house, and usually by inexperts who began their work with small knowledge of the theory or practice of printing. The compositors must have had some knowledge of Latin to enable them to read Latin texts. Considering that the work was new, it is a wonder that the novices did so well. 147 Simplidty favored hy designers of type As he had to create the types he needed, the first step of the master printer toward book -making was the selection of a model style of lettering for the book to be made. He might find a model in any reputable library. Italian copy- ists had an enviable reputation for neat penmanship, but the intending type-maker soon discovered that the pretty letter- ing of an admired book could not be correctly repeated in squared type. He must compare the letters of many books before he could select one for its adaptability to the squared shape. Simplifications had to be made; the curvetings of the penman were curbed to keep flowing strokes on the squared bodies demanded for movable types; the letter that could not be curbed was sometimes conjoined with a fre- quently following letter, as in se and ce, so that the two would appear in one type. Our &, fi, fl, ff, ffi, and ffl, still made by type-founders, are the survivors of conjoin- ings rated by old copyists as real graces in lettering. There were also many abbreviations in old manuscripts that were afterward rejected. The long f and its double are no longer tolerated in modern print; even classical scholars now advise more sparing use of the diphthongs. The tendency is to simplicity. Many famous early books show one size of type only. The 16-point Roman in the facsimile page of QuintiHan was the only size of Roman cut by Jenson. This font of type had but twenty-three capital letters, for J, U, and W were not then in use. His lower-case characters were twenty- six in number : u served as a substitute for v, i for j ; w had not then been accepted in the Roman alphabet ; s was dupli- cated — long f serving as an initial or medial letter, short s for the final letter. The diphthongs ?e and ce and some doubled characters were added, as in fli, fb, ff, (St, and Jenson 148 Many characters caused needless trouble did not abbreviate words in print with the freedom of his contemporaries, but he did use accented vowels that served for abbreviations. The period, colon, and interrogation point were his marks of punctuation. Bernard says that for an ordinary book seventy-three characters constituted his regular font of book type, without Italic or small capitals, but for scientific work he did make a few physical signs. ^ Discretion was needed by the copyist selected to draw or design a series of model letters. Exact imitation was im- possible, but a cramped or distorted letter might prove a deformity. There is no evidence, however, that a qualified artist was ever invited to remodel the lettering of a manu- script selected as a model. Italy then had many artists who painted grand pictures, but it does not appear that any one gave consideration to the forms of letters used in type- making.^ To design or remodel the two series of Roman in capitals and lower-case on squared bodies of type so that they could be combined pleasingly in the endless combinations of typography, called for an amount of study and experiment then probably regarded by the artist as mechanical drudgery. In the older printed books types were set together with marked closeness, but each letter of the regular alphabet was unmistakable in shape, easy to read and understand. Varying forms of the same letter made by the caUigrapher were rarely repeated by the type-maker, who noted too many forms in manuscript. The cost of cutting a sepa- rate punch for each character was great, and there was no ' In number this is but about one third of in 1509. The geometric rules formulated the characters now required for the regula- by Albert Diirer for their scientific and tion font of book type, which will vary for artistic construction did not appear before different books from 240 to 250 characters. 1524. After that came Geofroy Tory of 2 The sixteenth century came before artists Paris in his Champfleury of 1529. Other or theorists studied lettering. Attempts to theorists followed, but their rules, too often give to types the claimed " divine propor- arbitrary and dogmatic, have never been pre- tion " of Paccioli of Venice began with him cisely followed by practical type-founders. 149 Printing low in the artistic scale corresponding advantage to printer or reader. The long f and final s had been accepted for centuries as established mannerisms, and the combinations of these and other letters on one body were unavoidably so made to prevent hindrances in type- casting and type-setting. Graces of calligraphers had to be scrupulously avoided. Head-bands, side borders, center bands, and initial letters were occasionally attempted for composed pages at an early date, but it was generally under- stood by all novices in printing that utility was of more importance than decoration. Nor was the eye of the reader distracted and the intent of the writer confused by unexpected changes in the form of the letters. Italic types and small capitals did not appear before 1501, and there was no other form of display letter. Greek characters were often written in by hand or separately engraved when presented in a few words. Although made by Sweinheim, Arabic figures were not then rated as the needed constituents of a font of Roman type. The few characters then produced by Jenson were supposed to be enough for the proper presentation of written thought. Arabic figures and medical and astronomical signs were made only when sorely needed. Early Italian printers of the first class avoided the profuse use of contractions, signs, and abbreviations. When it could be done, words were spelled out at length with precision; they did, however, make irregular use of the diphthongs a3 and oe, and did occasionally abbreviate to prevent the over- turn of broken words. Printing was then rated as one of the liberal arts, but its allowed place was at the bottom of the artistic scale. The calligrapher, decorator, and illuminator were appraised as superiors of the typographer. Collectors of taste ah-eady 150 No record of studies or experiments with types had shown an aversion to printed hooks as too mechanical. Neither the printers nor their moneyed partners ever pur- posed a competition with caUigraphers and miniaturists; their object was to print books that would be salable and useful. Decoration of manuscript by rubrication and illumi- nation was wisely adjudged out of reach. It may be assumed that Jenson, Ratdolt, and Renner were competent to remodel manuscript letters for service as types; but the greater number of early master printers who had no aptitude for design or engraving went to the goldsmiths, who were supposed to unite, at least in some degree, the taste of the artist with the skill of a mechanician. Even to the goldsmith type-making presented many difficulties. To cut on steel an alphabet of capitals and lower-case for types with squared bodies, he had to make the two series accord as proper mates. He had to fit meeting characters with great closeness, yet not too close, so that they could be readily interchangeable and be pleasing in every new arrangement. To make the structural lines of different letters at apparently equal distance and yet preserve harmony and symmetry in the endless combinations of types was not an easy task. Many types had to be made by geometric rules, but some letters were unavoidably drawn in evasion or in partial disregard of these arbitrary rules. The engraver of the punch imitated the letters of his copy as closely as type-founding allowed, but he imitated largely in the spirit of the type-setter who is told to follow copy. The merit of the letter engraved depended largely on his skill and good taste, but his work was more of imitation than of design. No record has been preserved of experiments sup- posed to have been made by any early printer to test the intended effect of a proposed face of letter. The notion that 151 The systematic grading of sizes overlooked a new face was the outcome of a study of types made for experiment only, under changing conditions of composition; that letters were made tall or short, wide or narrow, fi-om repeated castings of different model letters, to give the general effect produced by large or small faces, by solid or leaded composition, by different widths or extensions of thick stroke and hair-line, by tall or short letters ; and that experi- mental types so made were compared in trial proofs of com- position from types specially founded for this purpose only, will not stand critical examination. There is no record of experimental trials, but there is abundant evidence that new fonts were often made in haste too great to permit of any experiment. The construction of the mold of brass or steel in which all the types of a book must be cast and the exact fitting of the matrices to one another and to the mold were fairly done by goldsmiths, for our facsimiles show truly squared bodies, even when their height to paper is apparently uneven. They failed mainly in fitting matrices to one another, and in the neglect of a visible uniformity. There was no concert of action between different type-makers; a generally accepted standard for determining with system uniformity in the bodies of type was never considered. Every maker of a mold was a law to himself, and determined the size of his type without regard to the practice of rivals. Types cast from one mold could not be combined with those made in another mold. It was impossible then to foresee the mischief that this independent action would afterward produce; but it now seems strange that a systematic grading of the sizes of type was not attempted before it was devised by Fournier of Paris in 1737, and that the adoption of his system of points, afterward modified by Ambroise Didot of Paris, and 152 Metals used in founding types still later by the American Type Founders' Company in 1886, was so long delayed. This irregular and independent action of type-founders, persisted in for centuries, has pro- duced a confusion from which printers are not yet fully free. We know but too little about early type-making, yet, if the manuscript of the Cost Book of the Ripoli Press, here often noticed, had not been preserved in the Magliabecchi Library at Florence, we should know less. In 1781 P. Vincenzio Fineschi collected the more noteworthy items and published them with comments in the form of a thin octavo under the title of Notizie Storiche Sopra la Stamperia di Ripoli, which has been accepted as a document of value by all writers on printing. The names and prices of the metals used in the type- foundry of the Ripoli Press, as recorded in this Cost Book, are specified in the annexed table. Some of the facsimiles here presented show types of an irregular width of face and a ruggedness of outline that seem to indicate a careless engraving of the model letter on the punch, but roughness of face in print was then as effectively produced by the too strong impression of properly cut but overinked types upon overdampened paper of uneven thick- ness. In some books this apparent roughness of type was caused by types largely of lead, cast to uneven height from 'Lead, which has always been the chief of service as alloys in hardening soft metal constituent of type metal, was used liberally, and in making more exact casts of type, if not excessively, by early Italian printers. Brass, at 12 lire, is written down as of Least in price, it was greatest in quantity, greatest cost, but the "metal," at 11 lire, is The blunting of types after wear indicates only little less. The prices seem small, but the weakness of soft metal. Steel, brass, and the purchasing power of money was then copper were needed for punches, molds, and much greater. Equivalents in American matrices ; tin and " metal " (not clearly currency are impracticable, for authorities on specified, but supposed to be antimony) were fifteenth-century currency seriously differ. 153 lire soldi Steel . , . 2 8 Metal . . , 11 Brass . , , 12 Copper . , , 6 8 Tin . , . 8 Lead^ . , . 2 4 Iron Wire . 8 Cheapening of methods and materials matrices of soft metal. Punches of steel, matrices of copper, and molds of brass or iron were approved at a very early date as the proper metals for these tools for type-making, but there were then amateurs who tried to invent quicker methods and cheaper materials, to use softer metal and even hard wood for the punch and hardened lead for the matrix. With these imperfect implements it was intended to manu- facture types at greater speed and reduced expense that could be used with advantage for cheaper books. Matrices of lead were not unknown even in the eighteenth centmy.^ Rugged- ness in types would soon come fi'om a matrix of soft metal even when it had been struck from a carefully engraved punch of hard metal. Though much admired, the new art of copperplate printing did not supplant nor even diminish the demand for type. The copperplate method did produce beautiful prints, maps, and decoration, but always in the form of single leaves. It could not make readable books, but it did this good ser- vice: it compelled printers to be more careful and to plan their books with new features of attractiveness. Woodcuts with clear lines gradually followed the appearance of neat prints fi'om copperplate ; borders and initial letters of greater delicacy became more frequent, and the needless roughness of the earlier types received new refinements. Punches were '"Leaden matrices" are specified in a I'lmprimerie, vol. i, p. 42, gives illustrations description of these tools for making types of types cast with imperfect material and by of large size in the printed catalogue of the rude methods, at the rate of one thousand in auction sale at London in June, 1782, of the one day. type-foundry of John James of that city. The sturdy ruggedness of some early types They are also specifically mentioned, "typi was not of set purpose to produce an intended aenei et matrices plumbese," in the catalogue superior artistic effect in print. There are of John Enschede, Haarlem, 1768. In his evidences that this rudeness was caused by Autobiography Benjamin Franklin says he a desire to cheapen the cost of types. The made "puncheons" and struck them in lead, advantages of printing Avere imperiled at the with which he produced matrices for the start by this desire to hasten and cheapen casting of a few types that were deficient. production. Tlie meanness of some modern Bernard in his De I'Origine et des Debuts de printing is due to the same cause. 154 Light and bold faces alternately in vogue engraved with sharper Hnes and thinner stems; matrices were more truly justified and accurately alined, and types were cast with sharper edges and of even height to paper. The hair-line of the copperplate, so easily produced on that surface, had been the envy and despair of the type printer, who in attempting imitation too forcibly impressed types largely of lead against damp and rough paper; but Renner and Ratdolt showed that although a perfect imitation was out of reach, it was possible to engrave punches with more delicacy, and to produce acceptable prints from types that were of metal softer than copper. Many of the small types produced at the close of the fifteenth century were black, bold, and compact, yet not entirely satisfactory to the reader. The lli-point of de Zanis in his edition of Plutarch's Lives, and the still smaller sizes then made by other printers, fairly indicate a preference by some readers for more firmness of face. Familiarity with the Gothic character had induced the erroneous belief that to be distinct types must be very black. ^ Attempts were occasionally made to found types that would repeat the delicate lettering of expert penmen and engravers on copper, but the imitation did not go far enough. 'The need of a relief of white space within and without each type to serve as a proper contrasting background for thick strokes of black-faced types, was imperfectly under- stood by some early type-founders. The relatively broad lane of white between lines of composed type that had been produced by the early printers of large types was effec- tively narrowed by their shortening of as- cenders and descenders for bodies of 12-point and smaller sizes. The round letters of the Roman lower-case were compressed laterally by many type-founders, but not always to improvement. This compression of letters was given only to the lower-case characters; capitals were never made visibly thinner or condensed; to many founders this change then seemed an unwarrantable liberty. The bold and black types of de Zanis and of rivals in Italy who imitated his bold-faced style did not long remain in fashion. Letters of lighter face returned to meet renewed favor and ever since have had capricious ap- proval — liked to-day, disliked to-morrow. Yet the fallacy is frequently revived that the readability of print depends largely on a quantity of ink. At intervals some new bold face of type will be produced to please a criti- cal publisher because it is new and supposed to be more distinct than any prevailing light face and is an acceptable change from the old monotonous uniformity. 155 Type-making became a separate art The very slight compression of the lighter- faced Romans afterward made by Ratdolt and Renner did not receive from buyers the full approval expected. The letter that seemed beautiful in the manuscript that contained the model of a desired type did not always prove so beautiful in its imitation in type, for goldsmiths who under- took to draw letters, cut the punches, and fit up the matrices were sometimes unequal to the task. The facsimiles here presented display unequal abiUty. Some letters were roughly cut on the punch, imperfectly struck in matrices, badly justified and fitted to the mold, and cast therefrom with similar carelessness. Yet books were occasionally produced hymen who gave an intelligent supervision to type-founding in every stage, from the draw- ing of the letter to the printing of the types. There were printers of no celebrity who made or had made for them types with a cleanness, sharpness, and precision greater than that of others who stand higher on the honor roll. It must be noted that some types of Hahn and Herolt of Rome, Miscomini of Florence, and of Ratdolt and Renner in Venice, were more correctly made and carefully printed than those of the printers of more famous books. Unsuccessfnl practice in type-making had to be continued for many years before it was plainly demonstrated that type- founding should be a distinct craft controlled by specially educated workmen. The separation of printing from type- making was accomplished dm-ing the first half of the six- teenth century in Paris and by Claude Garamond. Printers then discovered that they could practise printing with more success if they did not have to attend to the minor details of type-making and that they could be benefited by the experience of the few men who made types a life study. 156 Shallow counters a common fault Old books enough have been preserved to permit the study of their mechanical construction, but the printing types that made them books have disappeared. Many were destroyed as old-fashioned and no longer acceptable to book buyers, but more were condemned to the melting pot as hopelessly worn out even when they were still rated as of good style. A study of old types from the types themselves is, therefore, difl&cult. The Plantin-Moretus Museum at Antwerp contains a scant but probably the fullest exhibit of types in use after 1600. A critical examiner of these types will admire the ingenuity of the old designer of letters, but he will not be favorably impressed with the work of the punch-cutters and type-casters. He will object to their rough workmanship and especially to the shallowness of the counters or hollows in the faces of the letters. This would not be a new com- plaint. Fertel, a French printer^ of 1723, says that the counters of some new types of his time were of no greater depth than the thickness of a sheet of strong paper. Fournier records that the counter for ordinary book types should be "one fourth of a geometric line."^ This depth of the counter, about the fiftieth of an English inch, was tolerated by all the early printers, but it would not be allowed now in any type-foundry of reputation. So treated, open letters like a and e, with a central cross- stroke, were liable to be filled with excess of ink; they would soon flatten and be indistinct when cast with soft type metal. 'Fertel, Martin Dominique, La Science This work, generously planned and carefully pratique de I'lraprimerie, 4to, St. Omer, treated, does not mention a micrometer or 1723. any tool of precision. It is to be inferred ^Fournier, P. S., Manuel Typographique, that distrusted types were tested largely by small 16mo, Paris, 1764, 2 vols., pp. 12, 13. sight and touch. 157 PRINTING INK Every early printer had to compound with his own hands, or have compounded for him, the ink he needed for his books. He could not buy ink ready made as merchandise. More than a century elapsed before the manufacture of printing ink became a distinct trade. The mechanical mixing of smoke-black and other ingredients with linseed oil previously prepared by boiling, a most disagreeable part of the busi- ness, was a duty not to be hurried or unthinkingly intrusted to a heedless workman. To produce an ink that would be permanently black, smoothly coating inking balls and easily applied to types, sticking to paper after impression, drying quickly and not transferring grime to the fingers or to the facing leaf, demanded the intelligent supervision of a fully qualified master printer. Experience in practical presswork was needed. Ink had to be compounded to meet the requirements of the paper. The stiffs ink that might produce clear print on rough-faced and hard- sized linen paper would not be suitable on soft and cottony fabrics that were unsized. Papers dampened too much or too little, and vellum skins alternately with greasy and limy surfaces, taxed the resourcefulness of the pressman and often compelled him to retemper his ink. Linseed oil, after its proper preparation by boiling, had then been used for a short time by artists of the fifteenth century as the most serviceable vehicle for the carriage and transfer of colors, and early printers readily accepted it as the best substance for incorporation with smoke-black. There always were different formulas for the manufacture of 159 Approved constituents in early printing ink printing ink, but its more important ingredients were then well known and are here repeated in the following extract from the Cost Book of the Ripoli Press. Every printer compounded these substances, and possibly some others, to suit his own notions of appropriateness. As these ingredients had no chemical affinity one for the other, the mixture was truly mechanical, exacting skill, patience, and a regulated heat for the production of a satisfactory ink, but the mixture had to be varied to suit different kinds of paper. In many early books the printing ink has with- stood hard tests of time and ex- posure, keeping unchanged its needed blackness. Other old books there are in which the ink, seemingly black enough and sometimes excessively black, does not fairly stick to the paper ; in some, the ink "offsets" and is partially transferred to the fac- ing leaf; the black color soils the fingers, and print so pro- duced may even now be seriously weakened and defaced by a moist sponge. These faults be- tray an unwise selection of cheaper materials, or show igno- rance, haste, and carelessness in manufacture. One fault of ink is of later date, the yellow stain of spreading oil about each letter, a fault not common before the seventeenth cen- tury, being almost unknown in early books. 'Smoke-black, the important ingredient ^Gallnuts were then a necessary ingredient of black ink, is not specifically mentioned, in writing ink and may have been regarded but it is to be supposed that the printers as of value for producing a needed perma- made it from burning the pitch. nency in print. Cinnabar, a red sulphid of ^The utility of marcasite, a sulphurous mercury, was the base of the early red ink. oxid of iron, is not apparent. It is now better known as vermilion. 160 Linseed oil, barrel Turpentine, per lb. Resin pitch . Pitch, black ^ Marcasite^ Cinnabar . . Resin, per lb. Varnish, solid Varnish, liquid Gallnuts' . . Vitriol . . Gum lac . . lire soldi 3 10 4 4 1 8 3 5 3 8 12 4 4 3 4 Ink-making now a distinct craft It should never be forgotten that blackness or paleness of print is not entirely due to the ink; it was largely con- trolled by the pressman and by the selection and preparation of paper that should have been purposely made or selected to imbibe and retain color. Impression was another con- trolling factor; an inexpert workman could make the print of a proper ink seem smeary and grimy, or gray and feeble ; he was expected to regulate impression to suit differing resis- tances of hard, soft, or damp paper. Superior blackness has been claimed for early print, and there are old books that justify this praise ; but in most ex- amples offered the ink seems blacker because it was too liberally applied to types of large size with thick lines that favored the reception of dense color. The same ink applied to our modern thin-faced and sharp-lined type would seem relatively pale or gray. All the ingredients specified by the Ripoli Press are known to modern manufacturers of printing ink, who have added to them other substances approved by long experience, with improved machinery and methods of value. The compounding of printing ink is now a separate trade, to the greater benefit of book printing. He who works at ink-making daily for years to meet the different require- ments of different kinds of paper should make ink more satisfactory in quality than could have been produced by the early printer to whom ink-making was an occasional duty. The inking of early types was often accidentally irregular. The types of the Lactantius printed at Subiaco are overcolored, really thick and muddy on many pages. In the Quintilian of Jenson the types have not been inked enough. It may be that Jenson directed the hand pressmen to underink the types, by which treatment they would more clearly show in print the clear, sharp lines of his clever engraving and the 161 Black or pale print contr^olled by pressman more inviting openness of his cut of Roman letter. In books he afterward printed on types of Gothic form he designed and engraved them to show black ink with prodigality.^ Dif- ferences in the inking of types hmnored popular prejudices. The buyer of a devotional manual craved the blackness in print that seemed to give to it the somberness suitable to the subject-matter; to a buyer of different taste a book in Roman letter was more acceptable when it was relatively pale in color and conveyed a feeling of lightness and delicacy that was much desired. In compounding their colored inks early printers were not entirely successful. Rubricated words and lines in a text of black are often of dingy color, showing types choked with a pasty ink, the ingredients of which had not been properly mixed. The register of red ink with black ink in a rubricated text is remarkably good when we consider the crude process and the defects of the old hand press tlien in common use for printing in two colors. Pleasing color in red ink presswork appears to most advantage in broad sur- faces, as in the device of Jenson (plate 17) or in the larger letters used for initials. On types of small size the red may be smeary, as in the Decretals of Torresano (plate 18). Ink was dabbed on the types fi-om stuffed leather baUs, as may be seen in the annexed illustrations of the hand press (page 189). Their curved surfaces when forcibly rocked against one another equally distributed the ink, but the quan- tity applied was largely at the discretion of the inker ; it might be too much or too little, and the color might be variable on the pages of the same book. ' The types of the Decretals of (Iregory, i)rinted by AndreAV Torresano in the blacker shown in a facsimile (plate 18) on another style of Jenson and arc ciiiiscijuently black- page, probably Tuade by John Herbort of ened too much in i)riiit, but this gloominess Selingenstadt under Jenson's direction, were was probably pleasing to the buyer. 162 PAPER Without paper typography could have given small service; it came fitly before printing. In the fifteenth centm-y old and crude writing materials were out of use ; writers of the fourteenth century had put aside forever the brittle papyrus of Egypt and the wax tablets of old Rome. Parchment and vellum, never in a full supply, were becoming scarcer. For more than a century there was no proper substitute at hand. The only substance in every way adapted for printing was the paper that then had begun to come from the Far East. Fabrics of slender and elastic vegetable fibers, thin and of smooth surface, known as satin paper, had been used in China for printing purposes at an unfixed early date, prob- ably 170 B.C. In Persia this satin paper afterward became an approved material for manuscript books, and was there made up in the convenient form of folded and sewed leaves which the Western World soon learned to imitate. The practice of making paper gradually spread to Europe through Arabia, Constantinople, Spain, Sicily, and Italy. Between the years 1000 and 1400, in the hands of European paper- makers, cotton rags were accepted as the most available substitute for the barks or fibers of the Orient. This new cotton paper was purposely made to resemble parchment in smoothness of surface and flexibility; it was known as charta bombycina, Greek parchment, and parch- ment cloth. When properly sized it was used for ordinary writings and correspondence, but I do not find trustworthy testimony that cotton paper was taken for manuscript books of merit at an early date. Linen paper has always been preferred for its claimed superior dm-ability. 1G3 Linen and cottm, sized and unsized paper At what date paper from linen rags was first made is still in controversy;^ but it is generally conceded that dm'ing the latter half of the fourteenth century linen paper was largely made and well made in the mills of Italy." The most valued feature of writing-paper was its adaptation to the service of the penman, for which pm*pose it was "sized" in manufacture by washing or bathing it with a very thin film of glutinous water. Each sheet, during an early stage of its manufacture, while still moist but firm enough to be safely handled, was separately dipped in a tub of gluey water and afterward dried in airy lofts from overhead bars or poles. This dipping and drying treatment, known as sizing, added to the cost of the manufacture, but it gave additional strength and hardness to the paper, and enabled it to take fluid ink from the pen in clear lines without blotting. The phrases "tub- sized" and "loft-dried" are still used to describe thorough workmanship in the making of writing-paper. Sizing, although of service to the penman, was of slight benefit to the printer; it materially increased the cost of paper and added a hard surface wearing upon types. 'A fragment of paper from a document The paper in tlie Gutenberg Bible of dated 1216 is in the possession of Mr. Arthur Forty-two Lines (c. 1455) is of cardboard D. Little of Boston. A micro-photograph thickness, while that of Eggestein's De- proves that this paper was of linen fiber, cretals (c. 1471) is thinner but of a rough ^Printing paper made in Italy was not face. The large types and thick leaves of like that of northern Europe. The thick and the bulky books* made by Koburger, Zainer, rough-faced papers of Germany and Holland Richel, and other famous printers of Ger- are rare in early Italian books. Thomas many, gradually compelled the giving of Fuller (1608-1661), an English historian more attention to greater thinness in printing and divine, thus describes the different quali- paper, but the German paper-makers were ties: "Paper participates in some sort of the somewhat slow to imitate the very smooth character of the countries which make it; papers made by the Italians. The sturdy the Venetian being neat, subtile, and court- roughness, hunipiness, and the needlessly like; the French light, slight, and slender; visible wire marks of the "laid" papers that and the Dutch thick, corpulent, and gross, are now frequently found in many of the sucking up the ink with the sponginess reprints of old books, or in imitations of thereof." This last clause fairly indicates old mannerisms of paper-making, are seldom that during the sixteenth century unsized noticeable in books from the early Italian paper was in common usage. See note on presses. A list of papers used in Italy will page 111. be found on page 166. 1G4 Grass and wood now used for papers To lessen the wear and make the sheet more pliable under impression, printers had to dampen sized paper before it could be neatly printed; but dampening was not always success- ful. If the dampened sheet was unevenly thick, if it had a rough face and was overdampened, and if a thin ink had been used with strong impression, the sheet would show a mussy print, damaging to the appearance of the type and to the reputation of the printer or type-founder. Paper -makers were gradually induced to make paper for new books with weaker sizing and sometimes to omit all sizing. Half- sized or unsized paper did not call for so much care in its prepara- tory treatment for work on press. Properly treated by the printer, unsized paper showed the impression of type with even greater sharpness and clearness. In the production of cheaper books unsized paper was of service. To readers who did not intend to annotate the margins with a pen, it was especially welcome. A growing demand for cheap books compelled the use of unsized paper even in the editions that are now rated as of real value. Time proved that under ordi- nary conditions unsized paper maintains desired durability. The hard, rough surface and tough fibers of modern hand- made papers are now disliked by copperplate printers, lithog- raphers, and color printers by any process; their superior workmanship is best shown on unsized paper that is pliable and easily adaptable to every stroke of the graver. Paper made fi'om cotton rags was the common staple for years, but it has always been adjudged inferior to linen. Papers made from grass and prepared wood are now serving in place of the old cotton fibers. The old papers had greater strength, for early makers knew little about and made small use of the chemical agents now used, quick in action, but that may seriously weaken the fibers of paper 165 Papers supplied to early Italian printers stock. Linen rags were always preferred by the old paper- makers when they had been sufficiently prepared for pulp by protracted bleaching in the sunlight. Vellum and parchment were also used by the scribes or writers of manuscripts, but their cost was greater, and they ,^ ^ ^. , were not pleasing surfaces (in lolio per ream) . , . ^ „ lire soldi to early printers, lor some Grand paper of Bologna . 6 8 vellums resisted ink and Middle-size paper . . . 3 10 .^^^^ ^ ^^^^^1^^^ ^^^^^^ Small paper 3 mi n i. ^ ii -r, r. n 11 « l^he collector ol vellums Paper of Colle .... 2 6 Fabriano paper, mark of ^^^^^ copies among cross-bow 3 6 early editions.^ Paper of Prato .... 2 10 The Cost Book of the Fabriano paper/ mark of cross 2 6 J^ipoH Press specifies the ^^s'^'' . . 2 18 p^^, ^T^' Pescia paper, mark of gloves 2 8 P^P^^* ^^^^^ ^^i' I^^l^af printing houses in 1480." Paper selected for the early book, always of small size, was seldom exact or fairly square. It always had deckle or ragged edges. Dipped up from a tub of semi-fluid pulp upon 4n 1568 Christopher Plantin of Antwerp Plantin, deuxieme edition, Anvers, 4to, began a grand edition of the Polyglot Bible 1890, p. 138. in eight huge volumes, for which, to please The price of copies for this Polj-glot varied different tastes, many kinds of paper had with the quality of the paper, from 70 to 200 been selected. There were to be twelve florins. The liighest price for a copy on hundred sets on different kinds of paper and paper was for one printed on the imperial thirteen sets on vellum ; but the vellum sets paper of Italy. had been reserved for the King of Spain and ^As the sizes and weights of the papers a few ecclesiastical dignitaries. The Duke of are not specified, a comparison of prices Bavaria had requested a copy on vellum and cannot be made with papers of modern had offered to Plantin one hundred florins to manufacture. cover the extra cost of the vellum. Plantin ^The paper mill which is at Fabriano declined the proposal, saying that all of is supposed to have been established in the copies on vellum had been previously the fourteenth century ; it still continues its pledged to subscribers. He offered the duke service in an acceptable manner to many one of the copies on the imperial paper of publishers and readers. It has frequently Italy, which he said were more beautiful furnished the paper for some of the publi- and even better printed than were the cations of the Grolicr Club of the City of copies on vellum. ]\Iax Rooses, Christophe New York. 166 Hand-made papers of rough edges an inclosed mesh of woven wire (through which the surplus of water escaped), the retained pulp strayed outward irreg- ularly toward the inclosed rim. The deft hand and trained eye of the workman kept this irregularity within acceptable bounds, but they could not make the sheet exact as to size. As hand-made paper is still manufactured according to old usage, a perceptible variation in the dimensions continues to be noticeable. A ream of modern hand-made paper sold as 16 X 20 inches will show variations of from one eighth to one half inch in width and length, and in some reams the varia- tion may be greater. Early papers were not only irregular as to size but were somewhat rhomboidal as to form. Deckle edges were tolerated as an unavoidable attachment, as is the fringed end of a rug or the colored strip on the side of a bolt of broadcloth. They were not needed by old printers, for they made folded paper thicker at the outer edges than in the middle of the sheet and consequently unsightly on the fore edge of the book. They were relentlessly cut off by the binder, with the ap- proval of printer and book buyer, and are seldom found in any old bound book. It is only in the modern edition de luxe, which publishers propose to give to buyers as the printed leaf just as it comes fi-om the pressman, that the deckle edge is preserved as a voucher of the genuineness of its hand-made fabric. This fad declined in favor when it was shown that an imitated deckle edge could be produced on machine-made paper. Although the deckle edge was of no advantage to any one, wide margins were approved by the studious, for they were needed for annotation and correction. An early professor at Paris said that the manuscript books of his time were be- coming corrupt and sometimes unintelligible through the 167 Many qualities of printing paper ignorance or carelessness of their copyists. The only remedy was correction with the pen of the buyer. In one of his letters Erasmus says : "They do not love books who neglect to correct errors in the text and do not busy themselves by night and day in making needed annotations in the margin."^ The size of paper selected by the early printer of a book may be determined by Pollard's- method for computing the amount of blank paper with its deckle edge that successive generations of binders have succeeded in cutting away from the margins. "If a half (or rather less) be added to the height of a type page, and a half (or rather more) to its breadth, we have a very fair approximation to the size of an uncut copy." The admitted inferiority of much recent printing is largely owing to the inferior constituents of our cheaper printing papers. During the last fifty years straw, grass, wood, and other vegetable fibers have been successfully treated for this purpose. To the inexpert, papers from these substances may seem sightly, and promise to be as serviceable as those made from linen and cotton. They are to be had in many styles, and always at a tempting reduction below the price of better paper. Other sophistications have been successful. A very thin web of wood fiber can be thickened with a coating of burnished whitewash that gives to it the smooth surface of satin, or a thicker web can be cunningly roughened up with wire marks in parallels, stiffened with sizing and frayed at its edges so that it may pass for a genuine hand-made paper. These, and many other kinds of paper, will receive printing ink, but not to equal advantage: on one kind of paper the ink penetrates below the surface and becomes an inseparable ' Greswell, W. P., Aimals of Parisian - Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fif- Typography, p. 19. There quoted at length, teenth Century, p. xix. 168 Paper examined hy German experts portion of the fabric ; on another kind the ink is but a gray stain on a surface for which it has no affinity. Fair print- ing can never be produced when paper and ink are not mutually adapted one to the other. Haste is another factor in the production of mean paper. For the cheaper papers the old method of sun-bleaching paper stock has been put aside unavoidably for quicker processes. Chlorine gas, caustic alkalis, and steam boiling are preferred agents for the softening of harsh fibers. Manipulations that once called for months of attention are now confined within a few days. For the use intended, the paper stock so treated produces an acceptable fabric, but as a rule it is not to be compared with paper that has been more slowly made. It is a mistake, however, to assume that honest paper with sufficient strength and of high merit cannot be made by machines. There are machine-made papers fully equal and sometimes superior to the modern hand-made in every desir- able feature. The prejudice against all papers not of linen is equally unwarrantable. Esparto grass and selected wood fiber can be acceptably and admirably treated by a skilled manufacturer who does not grudge time and expense. Papers of high grade, whether made by hand or machine, are never common or cheap, but they still continue to be made by men who have pride in their product. Paper was never better made, never worse made, than it is now. A commission recently appointed by the German govern- ment, constituted of experts with scientific training, has examined modern papers to test their strength and dura- bility. The results were disappointing to some collectors of books. It was demonstrated after an examination of specimens of paper from many countries that hand-made papers were not always the strongest or the best. An 169 Early cheapness of paper abstract of this report is to be found in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, London. In the planning of a new book there is a need, greater now than ever before, for an intelligent adaptation of properly selected paper and ink to the types, woodcuts, or photo- engraved plates which have been provided for the book. The selling price of the paper fixes its value, but it does not determine its appropriateness for every purpose. Print- ing ink will stick to any kind of book paper, but some papers will take it kindly and pleasingly, where others will show it harshly and disappointingly. Practical tests by presswork are needed to prove adaptability, which cannot be determined in any other way. The cheapness of paper in the latter part of the fifteenth century has been noticed by many writers of that time.^ ' Books, written and printed, -were sold at low prices as early as 1470. The Bishop of Aleria, in the preface to Sweinheim and Pannartz's edition of Hieronymi Epistolse, makes these comments on the change in a letter addressed to the Pope : " In your days, amongst other divine blessings which the Christian world enjoys, it may congratulate itself on the facility with which books may be purchased, even by the poorest student. It reflects no small glory on the reign of your holiness, that a tolerably correct copy of a work that for- merly cost more than a hundred crowns may now be purchased for twenty; those which were heretofore worth twenty, for four at most. It is a great thing, holy father, to say that in your times the most estimable authors are attainable at a price little ex- ceeding that of blank parchment or paper. Some monarchs have gloried, not without reason, that under their administration the price of corn hath scarcely exceeded that of the empty sack; of wine, that of the cask. With equal exultation I record it for the praise of posterity, that persons exquisitely skilled in the typographic art first began to exercise their calling at Rome under the auspices of Paul 1 1, the Venetian ; that by means of that supereniinent pastor of the church, Heaven gives us, in these days, to purchase books for less than would for- merly defray the expense of the binding." At the end of his Ars Versificatoria, printed by Peter 'Keysere and John Stol of Paris (1473-77), Robert Gaguin addresses the reader in the four distichs here rendered from J. P. A. Madden : " Each time, honored reader, that you may reread this book, you will the more appreciate the talent of our printers. Instead of one year or more that a swift copyist then reipiired, one month is now enough for the new art to produce a new book without fault. Not long ago the paper needed for the writing of a book cost more than one pays at this day for an enormous volume. Happy Germany ! It is to thee that the world is indebted for this invention." 170 COMPOSITION In the old books most prized by collectors and librarians, large types with suitably broad margins were always ad- judged most appropriate to the dignity of the subject-matter. They were made to be imposing at first glance. This led to mistakes; the surface that would be covered by large types was not always correctly estimated, and very thick books in one volume or in two stout volumes were not infrequent. To keep reading matter within a proper limit, printers followed the practice of the earlier copyists : they avoided paragraphs, put thin spaces between words, and made fi'ee use of abbre- viations. Readers who had been accustomed to the com- pact writing of manuscript books did not find annoying this thin spacing of printed words. Taste has now changed ; the solid type-setting of old printers is not approved by modern publishers of books purposed to be readable and salable. The solidity of early composition was partly remedied by the long ascending and descending letters then made by the early printers for large Roman lower-case, which unavoid- ably produced lanes of white space between the printed lines and gave to a weary eye a proper relief to the compactness. The need of a relieving white space between lines was most noticeable when two or more lines of type were set in capital letters that nearly filled the body of the type. The first paragraph of the Eusebius of Ratdolt (plate 21) fairly illus- trates the obscurity produced by this able printer in his huddled composition of capital letters. Leads or blanks of white space between lines too close for proper perspicuity were not unknown to the early printers. 171 Huddling of lines and of words They were fi'eely used in Schoeffer's edition (1466) of the De Officiis of Cicero and in an occasional colophon of Jenson, but respect for the old methods of arranging words and lines was a stronger force. The value of leads to open a huddled composition and make it more readable was not so clearly discerned and was generally neglected. The proper width of the white space between printed words is even now controlled by the rule that compels the division of words on syllables only. To comply with this rule, spac- ing may be irregular, wide in some lines, narrow in others. The average thinness or wideness of the text-type in use to some extent determines the width of white space between printed words. Words should be kept apart visibly : in con- densed Black-letter the space may be very thin; in round and relatively broad Roman lower-case letter it should be wider. If Roman capitals only are used in two or more con- secutive lines, the space between words should be twice as wide as the space selected for the lower-case, and the lines, to be made more readable, should be widely leaded. Spaces of different widths were unknown or little used. All the earliest printed books show ragged endings on the right side of the page or column, as is now unavoidable in type- writing. The spacing out of a* short line of words so that it should be full and in symmetrical lining with lines above and below was a later improvement. The general avoidance of paragraphs was a serious fault. Many early printers made but one paragraph of each chapter, regardless of its length or of frequent changes. Even in the notes in Gering's edition of the Postils of de Lyra (plate 36) and the side-notes of the Silius Italicus of de Tortis (plate 25) paragraphing is entirely suppressed, and the composition is huddled in a manner that must have been troublesome to the 172 General avoidance of white space in pages student. In the Postils the superior reference letters of text as repeated in their notes are kept apart by a white space, apparently so made by the compositor in the belief that the reader would add a red ring or a dab of red ink to indicate the beginning of a new subject. It must have been expected by the printer that the student would voluntarily accept the annoyance of a slow search for the proper place of the desired reference. Poetry was the form of text matter that was fairly allowed a proper relief of white space, as may be noted in the Silius Italicus (plate 25) and in the preface to the edition of Virgil printed by Bartholomew of Cremona (plate 19). When the printer was provided with one size only of large type, and much reading matter had to be kept within a pre- determined number of pages, a certain compactness of com- position was unavoidable, which the early printers did not regard as a fault. ^ Foreseeing the gloominess of his composition, de Zanis tried to make his Plutarch attractive by a graceful border, by initial letters quainter in design than those of the hack illuminators, and by the remarkable engraving of Theseus and the Minotaur ; but these graces were not enough to make the text pleasingly readable. There is a running title in ^The Livy of John and AVendelin of Speyer, in two volumes (plate 14), lias one chapter of twenty-eight pages, forty-eight lines to the page (5| x 10^ inches), set up as one paragraph, without a white line or even the break of a half white line to indicate a change in subject-matter. The Quintilian of Jenson (plate 16) has one chapter of twenty- five solid pages, without any break or sign; and other chapters almost as long are fre- quent. This method of huddling together lines of closely spaced words was maintained for some years. The admirable Latin Bible in Gothic type of Renner (1476) shows the divisions with Roman numerals of chapters at each proper cross-line, but it has no breaks for verses, not even for the irregular books of Job and Psalms. The room required for any relief of white space was apparently grudged. The Bible of Robert Stephens of Paris (1545) does make paragraphs for the verses of Job and Psalms; but other parts of the book are huddled together in the old fashion without breaks. The text of this edition, in a 6-point type of thin face and printed with weak ink and feeble impression, is made more obscure by marginal side-notes in a narrow measure. The edition of Plutarch's Lives printed by de Zanis in 1496 (plate 26) fairly exhibits the repulsiveness produced by compacting a book intended for two parts in one folio volume of 578 closely printed pages. The 173 Compactness of much early printing capital letters over each page, that properly indicates the subject-matter below, and its leaves (but not its pages) are consecutively numbered with Arabic figures. The recto of the first leaf has a small bastard title, Plutarchi Vitae, in capital letters of the text-type, and the verso of this leaf has a table of the chapter headings. The earlier books do not have the complete title-page now required — not even a short and small bastard title upon a separate leaf. A few explanatory lines may go before the first page of text, but it is oftener a dedication. As a rule the printer began the text of type abruptly, at the top of the page, leaving but a small square of white space for the in- sertion of a written or painted initial letter. When the text had been printed a few introductory words were written, but not always with neatness, at the head of this first page. It was supposed by the printer that the buyer of the book would write or paint in the needed initial. This was not always done; and even when it had been done this initial so made might prove a real blemish to the type work, for there al- ways have been clumsy letterers to degrade print with care- less drawing. In all books of devotion with versicles and responses, it was expected that the owner of the book would facsimile of its first page, shown on page 97, tlie extreme of closeness, so as to get much with a broad black border and a large wood- matter on the page. The breaking of a line cut, imperfectly shows the compactness of its to form the small square of white space that following page of solid composition(6y inches marks the beginning of a new paragraph was wide and 9f inches high). Each full page purposely neglected. One of the chapters consists of sixty-two lines of a bold-faced has nineteen solid pages of full lines, or IH-point type, but in all lines the words, more than seventeen thousand words. To frequently abbreviated, are separated with read types or study writings so composed very thin spaces. Even the chapters are must have been wearisome; to refer to an huddled together. Each of its sixty-seven imperfectly remembered word or phrase in divisions begins with one or two lines of the solid composition must have been difficult capitals of the text and an engraved initial almost to impossibility, letter of neat design ; but there is rarely a thin Other examples of the compactness of wliite line tosliow separation between con tig- early printing are de Tortis's edition of Silius uous chapters. The compositors must have Italicus (plate 25) and the Livy printed by been told to crowd letters, words, and lines to Daniel Elzevir (plate 39). 174 Paging, signatures, and catchwords mark change of subject-matter with dabs of red ink over the initial letters of a sentence, and this method of indicating a new paragraph was gradually adopted in secular books. This treatment of title-page matter was convenient to the early buyer of books, but it seemed petty when set in types too small for the subject-matter. Other printers began to consider the value of larger types for the name of the book, and the assembling of useful information about the edition upon one front page where it could be read without further search. The facsimile of the title-page of the Bible by 0. Froschover (plate 38) is a fair illustration of a style then approved by printers of the early sixteenth century. It shows two sizes of very large type — too large for the text of any ordinary book and apparently made only for service on title-pages. Paging was another improvement tardy in development. The numbering of leaves with Arabic figures gradually sup- planted the clumsy and uncertain Roman numerals, but it was a paging only on the recto or the right side of the folded leaf; the verso, or left-side page, was not numbered. The value of this neglected aid to ready reference in a search for an indistinctly remembered passage in the text needs little comment. It was convenient then and now to insert the paging figure by the side of the running title at the head of the page, but the page figure is clearer at the foot. Catchwords and signatures were not used by the earlier Italian printers, although manuscript copyists had found them of service, for they were safeguards against the acci- dental displacement of detached sheets before they had been prepared for sewing in consecutive order. Some recent reformers of typography have tried to avoid the use of signatures and Arabic figm*es for paging, but 175 Running titles and chapter headings William Blades has proved that all these safeguards were used by copyists before they assembled and sewed the differ- ent folded sections of a book. As first planned, signatures were placed on the margin of the first page of each folded section close to the lower edge of the leaf. When the sec- tions had been properly sewed and the possibility of a mis- placing had been prevented, these signature marks were trimmed off by the binder. The signature mark, whether of letters or figures, is often regarded by the casual reader as an obtrusive and offensive addition to the print on the page; it is an offense, but it is a serviceable mechanical device that may not safely be neglected. To assemble and keep in consecutive order the different sections of books of same size of page and leaf and in two or more volumes without the aid of signatures is always a risk. The chances of error are many in any bookbindery that has to keep exposed in folded sections thousands of detached sheets for different books. Running titles at the head of pages are of value to every reader. When it indicates the subject-matter of the print below, the running title prevents a needless scrutiny. It appears in a few books printed at the close of the fifteenth century, but its improvement to the appearance of the page, even when it uselessly repeats the title of the book, has led to its general adoption. A page without a running title is not a novelty now, but the page without it seems bald and imperfect. Numbered chapters or chapter headings in some form have been approved guide-posts for a reader ever since books were written. For this purpose the Roman numeral still keeps its prominent position, but largely because its letters are broader and plainer than the thinner characters of Arabic figures. Numerals of Roman letters mate neatly with the capital letters that precede them in the line. The modern 17G Initials and summaries of chapters practice of beginning a chapter with a fresh leaf, with a broad margin at its head, and of ending that chapter with a blank that shows its finish at the end of its last page, was unknown in the fifteenth century. For many years it was customary to have one chapter follow its predecessor with- out any intervening lane of white space, as must still be noticed in all compact modern editions of the Bible. This huddling of print, without a rest for the eye in the form of blank space, made study fatiguing and the print repelling. Early writers of fine manuscript books were more considerate, and provided blank space for added decoration in the shape of borders, center bands, initial letters, or illustrative minia- tures. Initial letters were most frequently employed, for they permitted an infinite variety of ornamentation. It was not possible for any typographic printer to imitate the gold and bright color and beautiful designs of the calligraphers, yet Ratdolt and others did engrave initial letters of merit span- ning and filling in height two or more lines of text-type. Initial letters of large size, whether plain or engraved, were a pleasant relief to eyes wearied with the monotony of com- pacted composition, and were as effective in arresting the attention of a hasty reader as numbered chapter headings. This time-honored device for adding to the attractiveness of a page has been for many years undervalued, but largely so because the letters now furnished for this purpose are seldom good mates for the text and are hackneyed by repetition. They are often inferior in design to the approved initials of the fifteenth century. Summaries of chapters, sometimes in the form of a single line, but oftener in a recapitulation of every paragraph in the chapter, are modern additions to the printed book which have been claimed as improvements, but this is questionable. 177 Notes on the margins of the page A short summary may be of service, but the long summary that occupies a large portion of the page is not an improve- ment on early practice, for it is seldom properly examined. The inclosure of a page of text on three or four sides with explanatory notes in a smaller size of type, as is here shown in the facsimiles from Torresano, Gering, and de Tortis, is a peculiarity of early composition that has fallen into general disuse. In our modern practice of composition, long notes are always put at the foot of the page or in an appendix; short notes that specify authorities, dates, or cross-references, and that need short lines only, are sometimes added to the outer margin of the page; but verbose notes on the inner margin or at the head of the page are ruled out by authors and printers as impracticable. The method of keeping long notes on the same page of text had been practised for cen- turies by the copyists of manuscripts, but it called for much discretion and inteUigence. What was troublesome in copy- ing was much more difficult in the composition of type. To keep notes and text together on one page or on facing pages, it was necessary that the width of the measure for the broader lines of the text and for the narrower lines of notes should be altered and readjusted at every succeeding page. Type-setting could not safely begin before the words of each proposed page had been counted and the space to be occupied on each page had been correctly estimated and these pro- portioned one to the other. This drudgery, which could be satisfactorily performed by the author only, largely increased the cost of composition, and this added cost soon led to the discontinuance of the page surrounded by notes. The liberty to abbreviate long words, granted to the early compositor, but properly denied to the modern workman, has made this old method impossible. 178 Abbreviations and ligatures Copyists of the early fifteenth century found the standard Roman alphabet insufficient for the expression of thought as then written. Capital letters were only twenty- three in number; Y served for U, I for J, and W was not needed in a Latin book. The lower-case characters had been en- larged to twenty-six by the addition of the long f and the diphthongs se and oe. The desire to put many words in small space, to shorten the drudgery of writing, or to save paper and keep a proposed book within a predetermined limit, were motives that induced the copyists to take great liberties in contractions and abbreviations. For some liberties they found warrant in the lapidary inscriptions of old Rome that were still in evidence, but clipped words were not enough. They added signs, accents, conjoined letters, and ligatures of long syllables in profusion. This laxity in practice worked mischief. Abbreviations devised for his own convenience by one copyist might be unknown to another copyist, and be deciphered with difficulty by a student. A French scholar of this period said that manuscript books were becoming un- intelligible through the carelessness and presumption of the copyists. Two critical readers might give entirely different meanings to the same sentence written by two copyists.^ It was not practicable for the early printer to reproduce in type many of these ligatures or conjoined letters. A new character compelled the cutting of a separate punch, the making and justifying of a separate matrix and its casting as a distinct type at much delay and needless extra expense. Printers of the better class, now famous through their quartos 'The annoyance produced was great early manuscripts consults the Dizionario di enough to lead Martin Flach of Strasburg in Abbreviature Latine ed Italiane (Milan, 1499 to prepare and print a book of ex- 1899), which contains more than thirteen planations for the common abbreviations. thousand abbreviated expressions in use His book, helpful in its time, is almost for- during the fifteenth century, but only for gotten now. The modern decipherer of Roman characters. 179 Abbreviations not favored by type-founders and folios, shunned this expense and tried not to expand but to simplify the characters then written in manuscripts. To the twenty-three capital and twenty-six lower-case letters type- makers added only the three points of punctuation . : ? The annoyances made in type-casting and type-setting by the overhanging beak of the f and f compelled the casting of these combinations on one body: fF, fl, fi, ffi, ffl, ft, (51). Wendelin of Speyer used an accented e instead of the diph- thong 86 and the types of o and e for 03. Sweinheim and Pannartz in their edition of the Epistles of St. Jerome rejected the short s and made the long / serve for a final letter. Small capitals, Arabic figures, and reference marks were not then in any scheme or assortment of regular book type. To please the tastes of readers who had been long accustomed to the accented letters and ligatures of the copyists the early type-makers occasionally provided some of these characters, but they did it grudgingly. Bernard says that the fame of Jenson's Roman is based on the seventy-three characters used in his ordinary books. This scant collection is in marked contrast with the scheme for book type now in use, which consists of four correlated series of capitals, small capitals, Italic, and lower-case, with many points of punctuation, figures and fi'actions, marks of reference, braces, dashes, leaders, and commercial signs — in all about two hundred and forty-seven distinct types. Abbreviations, as then practised by copyists and by some printers, were prompted by a desire to keep within proper limits the contents of a bulky book, and poor scholars may not have seriously objected when they cheapened its price. The license then allowed in condensation may be seen in the notes in the Postils of Nicolas de Lyra by Ulric Gering, in the Silius Italicus of Baptista de Tortis, the Decretals of 180 Book-making an attractive industry Gregory by Andrew Torresano, and, most flagrant of all, the Four Books of Sentences by Wendelin of Speyer. In the book planned for notes to surround the page of text on every side, abbreviations were unavoidable. In a text of large size, words often appear at length, but in the notes the clipping of a word too long for the line was common. Uniformity of style in the spelling of words, and espe- cially of proper names, does not seem to have been regarded as of importance. In the Jenson printing house Jenson's name has been spelled in the colophons ien^on and ienfon. A proper name had one capital only, and that was at the beginning of the baptismal name ; the first letter of the family name was usually in lower-case both in Germany and Italy. The number of editions printed in Venice before the year 1500 is estimated by Bernard at nearly three thousand, with three hundred copies as a fair average for each edition. Some of them were in two or more volumes. If a proper allowance be made for books now lost or unknown, the total product will largely exceed one million volumes.^ Books were also printed in other cities, towns, and monasteries. Eagerness to ac- quire a practical knowledge of some department of printing was shown by all artistic crafts. Merchants were anxious to hazard money in the new business of typography, which then 'It is not possible to arrive at an exact ties. The authorities differ, for bibliography estimate of the number of books printed in is not one of the exact sciences. Pollard Europe with movable types during the fif- has furnished a striking illustration of these teenth century. Down to the present time differences. Bartolommeo de Libri, a printer between 24,000 and 25,000 of these have of Florence, was credited by Hain, most been described ; but books hitherto un- painstaking of cataloguers, with but three identified continue from time to time to come books, and this number was accepted by to light, and it is by no means improbable that Burger, equally careful, in his Index to Hain the total number extant may be about 30,000. of 1891. Soon afterward bibliographers ac- Fortescue, Catalogue of Books Printed in cepted the teaching that types are a safe guide the Fifteenth Century. in determining the paternity of a book. Fol- It was my intention to .show the activity lowing this teaching, in his edition of 1902 of the printers here named by a count of Burger ascribed one hundred and twenty their books, as set forth by accredited authori- books to de Libri. 181 Ingenuity of many early compositors promised to be exceedingly profitable. Hundreds and thou- sands of workmen must have been employed at type-making, type-setting, presswork, and bookbinding, and the practice of each craft was soon made a distinct trade. Type-setting demanded the largest number. When we consider that the introducers of printing in Italy were for the most part workmen who had expertness in one or two branches of typography only, and that the proper practice of the art demanded an intelligent acquain- tance with the details of many different trades, yet that these details had to be intrusted to relatively inexperienced workmen, it is wonderful that the novices did so much work and did it so well. The Cost Book of the Ripoli Press tells us that some of its compositors were women from near-by convents who did their work well and were commended. As the books printed were largely in the Latin language, it was important that the compositor should have a decent knowledge of Latin to enable him to read manuscript copy full of abbreviations, and in his turn to abbreviate words with discretion when they had to be rearranged for narrow lines and side-notes. It was the practice of all early printers to set up each page by itself, and this page was separately printed. Two pages were put together side by side on the bed of the press, but each page had to be separately impressed by special pull of bar.^ Many of the early type-setters showed much ingenuity in composition. Some tried to make the book attractive by fantastic arrangements of type. The closing lines of a ' Presswork was tlms immensely slow as make the end of each section of copy coin- compared with composition, and to meet this cide with the end of a quire. This accounts difficulty it was usual to have four or six for some of the variations in the number of presses employed on a large book simultane- sheets 'n\ difierent quires. Pollard, Cata- ously. The copy to supply each press was logue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth set up separately, and the problem was to Century now in the British Museum, p. xii. 182 Trimness of early printed pages chapter were sometimes set in lines of gradually decreasing width, to present the appearance of a funnel. Colophons and imprints were arranged in geometrical forms of simplicity, as in the shape of wine cups, crosses, diamonds, circles, etc. To get a statement within a prescribed space a compositor was often required to abbreviate a sentence to three fourths or even one half of its proper length in spelled-out words. It was supposed that the reader would have wit enough to conjecture the meaning of words so abbreviated. Regret is sometimes expressed that modern compositors do not show the skill of their predecessors in curious arrangements of type; but it is not so well understood now that the older fashion of inclosing a page of text-type with notes that sur- round three or four sides of the text matter has always been troublesome and expensive, and is now seldom practicable. It can be done with satisfaction in narrow measures when very small type is used and the compositor has the liberty (now properly denied to him) to abbreviate words at his discretion. In no case can it be done pleasingly unless the author prepares the copy for this treatment by counting the letters and words intended to come within the prescribed width of line. The author must be equally vigilant in supervising the work and correcting the proof for the adjust- ment of unforeseen irregularities that will surely occm*. Contracted forms of expression in types, abbreviations, and broken lines of verse were partially prevented by the more extended use of the thin, slanting ItaHc, but it was gradually discovered that the Roman characters could be condensed with equal legibility. In some features of book-making the early Italian pub- lisher was more particular than his modern successor in trying to give a neat and trim appearance to pages of type. 183 Attempts at trimness and symmetry Margins may be broad in some books and narrow in others, but the adjustment of the page of type to the shape of leaf and margin was usually satisfactory. The early printer's limited collection of t3rpes compelled him to select wisely the size of the leaf of paper on which the page was to be printed, and he avoided the needless breaking up of lines of poetry. Modern sense of propriety is not so nice. There are recent editions of poetry deformed by a broad border about too narrow pages, and by the occasional addition within that border of a very large engraved initial letter. This treat- ment compels the breaking of one or more lines of verse in two or more short lines with ragged endings, the mangling of the rhyme and the disfigurement of the page. A rashly predetermined combination of a large size of text-type with a big initial and a wide border which is not adapted to the shape of leaf and amount of matter is always a damage to the general effect of the page. It is not possible for a printer, working under rigid instructions, to reconcile incongruities in plan which should have been foreseen by author or pub- lisher. The decorator, unintentionally but effectively, may belittle the intent of the author and annoy the reader. The space that must be occupied by types that are absolutely incompressible is seldom considered as it should be. A Spanish printer of the sixteenth century devised an ingenious method to prevent frequent overturns or breaks in full lines of poetry which merits modern imitation. He had made for this purpose two series of a similar face of type on the same body. One was broad, one was narrow, but the types of both series were of same height, same thickness of stem, and neatly alined. He used the narrow series only for the relatively unimportant words that would have made the hue too wide and caused a needless break. 184 Practical workmen preferred as managers Early editions are often valuable for mechanical merit, but praise can be given to few for their accuracy. Proof-reading as now practised was then unknown or much neglected. The liberty given to compositors to abbreviate freely, and the scant time allowed to an author or editor for the scrutiny of proof, practically led to serious errors. In one of his writ- ings Erasmus has put on record his anger at the perversion of his words printed from manuscript copy. Prosper Mar- chand^ calls the corrector for Sweinheim and Pannartz a presumptuous meddler with texts; he quotes Schelhorn, Maittaire, Nande, and other bibliographers as expressing similar judgment. The facsimiles previously presented, which include some of the best and worst of early printing, fairly indicate the variety of early Italian styles, but more information would be of service. The customary methods of organizing and managing a new printing house, the relations between masters, workmen, and rival publishers, are scantily noticed by early bibliographers. It is impracticable to collect from these notices facts enough to give exact information about the methods then in general use. This gap is partially supplied by Paul Mellottee of Paris, "doctem- es-sciences pohtiques et economiques," who pub- lished in 1905 the first volume of his Histoire Economique de rimprimerie. It contains some curious matter in con- densed form. Our information about the duties and rights of partners in new printing ventures is scant, but the following notes of an agreement made between Zarotto and his associates, which have been copied from Bernard, throw additional light on the subject. They show that the chosen leader ^ Histoire de I'lmprimerie, vol. i, pp. 97—103 and notes. 185 Agreement between Zaroito and his associates was not a speculator or financier, but a man who had earned a deserved reputation as a practical workman — planner of books, maker of types, and compounder of ink. SUMMARY of an agreement made by and between Antonio Zarotto, the priest Gabriel de li Orsoni, Colla Montano, Antonio de Parma, Pedro Antonio de Burgo de Castilliono and Gabriel Pavero de Fontana for a partnership of three years, dated 20th May, 1473. 1 Zarotto promises to furnish to this asso- ciation all the types needed, Roman, Greek, or Gothic, and to compound the ink for all the presses required. 2 The four associates first named after Za- rotto agree to furnish money for the ex- penses of the association. De Burgo will at once advance 100 ducats, on condition that it shall keep four presses constantly at Avork. 3 The associate who shall hinder the work of the house shall forfeit all his rights. 4 The rental of the house occupied for printing shall be at the expense of the association. 5 The profit made shall be divided in three equal parts : one part to Zarotto and the remaining two parts equally among the other four associates. 6 Zarotto, from his one third share of the profits, shall repay the four associates the moneys advanced by them for the making of presses and other equipments, which shall become his property at the termina- tion of the contract. 7 The priest Gabriel shall have custody of the books, and shall be the cashier and general financial agent of the association. He will account for all property confided to him, and he shall be entitled to one copy of every book printed by the asso- ciation as compensation for this duty. 8 The selection of books to be printed shall be made by the associates in open meeting. 9 The recompense of the corrector and the copyist [probably preparers of copy and not professional readers or compositors] shall be in the books printed. 10 Every workman before admission to the printing house shall make oath to keep its secrets. Workmen and the associates also are hereby forbidden to give assist- ance to other printers of the city, but if any associate purposes to have a book printed at his expense, and cannot agree on terms Avith the association, he may be specially authorized by the association to have it printed by another printing house in Milan or Parma. [This indicates the existence of rival printing houses.] Soon after the signing of this contract the associate de Burgo made an additional agreement with his brother Nicolas. They agreed to install and keep at work three or more presses on books of medicine or civil or canon law and to pay more than one half of the rental of the general printing house. They also promised to give to the associates one fourth of the profits accruing from the sale of their books and at once to pay 25 ducats to them. They also agreed to give to each of the four associates one copy of every book they printed, and not to sell their books below prices fixed by the asso- ciates. At the end of the three years spec- ified they would withdraw from the associa- tion, leaving with it all money they had ad- vanced, and would convey to Zarotto all their equipment at a price fixed by experts. On their part the four associates agreed with de Burgo and his brother not to print on their own four presses any books on law or medicine without special permission, under a forfeit of 200 ducats for each infraction. Seven presses were kept under the control of the association. it 186 THE HAND PRESS The press of the fifteenth century was of simple construction, usually made by the local joiner and blacksmith to the order of the printer who would use it. Its platen or impressing surface was a solid block of beechwood, large enough to cover one folio page, but it seldom exceeded the size 9x 14 inches, and was sometimes smaller. The strong spindle of iron that gave impressing force to this platen was grooved at its head with threads of the screw that communicated proper pressure to the platen. This spindle was securely nested in a vertical collar that allowed no side twist, and was firmly attached to a bent protruding lever, known as the bar, by which the pressman operated the screw. An iron plate protected the platen against wear of the spindle point. The spindle at its top was supposed to be provided with a sufficient resist upward, from the squared heavy timber firmly placed over it, against any waste of pressure. The supports of the press at the sides were also heavy beams of wood. It was foreseen that the press might leak applied pressure at many joints. Rigidity of construction in the fitting together of its many parts was planned, but was never entirely secm^ed. Largely constructed of parts that were often not truly adjusted, the press was consequently shackly and weak. It was properly described by Moxon in his Mechanick Exercises of 1683 as "a makeshift, slovenly contrivance." It had to be braced with beams diagonally placed against the ceiling, as is shown in accompanying illustrations from old books, to confine the pressm*e intended 187 The old method of printing hooks for type only, but these resists were insufficient. Its platen could not receive impression enough to transfer properly to paper the ink upon the surface of more than one folio page of type. Types first made were often of unequal height. To make fairly readable in print those that were too low or much worn, a thick blanket of wool was put between the platen and the paper to be printed. When the iron bar that gave the impression was pulled down, the spongy blanket was expected to diffuse equal pressure to all types that were under standard height. To make a strong book in workmanlike style, the sheet had to be kept of the full size furnished by the paper-maker, and yet must go to the binder fully printed on each side. As the platen could cover at one impression but a portion of one side even of a small sheet, provision had to be made for printing the types on each side by distinct impressions. The press must have a bed twice as wide as the platen and large enough to hold all the pages for one side of the sheet. The bed, usually of stone or slate, was run in and out on a carriageway to receive the impression of the platen. Two pages of type planned to be printed on the same side of the sheet for a book of folio size were put together side by side on the bed of the press. As the press could not print the two pages simultaneously, each form received two movements of the bed to bring each page under the platen, and two pulls of the bar to complete the impression. A sheet of 16x21 inches, then rated as a large size, required four separate impressions to complete its four folio printed pages. Three hundred small sheets a day printed on each side were considered a proper performance for the two men who worked the press, but this product required twelve hundred distinct impressions and as many separate pulls of the bar. 188 Plate 40 Press work and Composition as done in 1520 (Device of Jodocus Badius of Paris) The points of Ute hand press For a day of ten hours the printing of only three hundred sheets of four pages in folio would now be considered a very trifling performance when it is compared with the thousands of impressions on large sheets produced in the same amount of time by the cylinder press which is now generally em- ployed for book work. Two men were needed to work the press— one to distribute the ink on the balls and dab it neatly upon the face of the type ; one to place the sheet in position to receive impres- sion fi'om this inked type, to move the bed holding the type accurately under the platen, and to pull down the bar that would transfer the ink to the sheet/ It was not an easy task for the pressman to place the paper for the first page of a new sheet in correct position, to keep it an even distance from the central fold (as yet undeter- mined), and harder yet to print the backing page, or verso, so that it should register exactly with the recto page. The sheet was not square, for it had the rough deckle edges, and might have been dampened too much or too little to prepare it for impression. To prevent irregularity of margin and of page position the printer attached to this first page pins that per- forated but did not blacken the paper. For the second, third, and fourth pages of this sheet pins in a corresponding position were fastened to the tympan, and the sheet was adjusted on these pins, so that the print would appear in proper place. ^ 'Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, 8vo, that convey additional explanation of tech- London, 1683, contains two full-page en- nical terms that are obsolete, gravings by copperplate process of the early ^"In the 42-line Bible there are said to press: plate 3 shows its early form, and plate have been as many as ten of these pin-points 4 the improvements made by Willem Jansen to each leaf, four at the top, four at the foot, Blaew of Amsterdam in 1620. This scarce and two on the outer margin. Eacli of these and valuable treatise on printing was pub- pins left its mark on the paper in a little hole, lished in two volumes in 1896 by the but many of these pinholes have been cut off, Typothetae of the City of New York. Vol- and others closed up by the heavy pressure ume II contains, on pages 399-430, notes used by modern binders. Often, however, 190 Limitatwns of the hand press Modern printers continue to use, but not so lavishly, pin- holes as safeguards against irregularities of margin and faulty- register, not only in the printing but in the folding of large sheets on machines. When presses have strictly accurate movement, and sheets are square with neatly trimmed edges, it is practicable to get exact register and true margins by plac- ing the sheet truly against guides that do not vary in position. The early printers soon found that excess of pinholes was a hindrance. Two pinholes perforating the central fold of the sheet at proper distance were enough to secure accuracy. In this position the pinholes were obscured by the sewing of the folded back and were not noticeable to reader or librarian. Superior merit has been claimed for books printed on the hand press, as if the press gave to print distinctive charac- teristics. This claim is not warrantable. The hand press has produced admirable printing and can continue to do so, but it has oftener produced workmanship that is decidedly inferior. It has merits of its own, but it is not the appa- ratus preferred by the modern experienced master printer. He rightfully says that it is deficient in strength, speed, and productiveness. These are grave defects, yet it continues to be rated as available apparatus for taking a quick proof or impression. Its merit began with its slow movement, its constant exposure of type, paper, and machinery to the un- remitting supervision of two operators who could arrest the they are distinctly visible, and sometimes from four to two, and the final abandonment very unpleasantly so. ... A combination of pinholes altogether, form very useful land- of damp paper and a pull against the pin in marks. Schoelfer appears to have changed taking it off the press greatly enlarged the from four pinholes to two in the second half puncture and sometimes resulted in a tear, of 1474 and to have given them up at the Hence the object of a careful printer was to beginning of 1477. Mentelin on the other reduce his pinholes to as few as possible. At hand made the first change as early as 1466; a very early date the ten pinholes mentioned the second probably some time in 1473." above had been reduced to four, and in the Pollard, Catalogue of Books Printed in the case of several printers the further reduction Fifteenth Century, 4to, London, 1908, p. xiv. 191 Hand presses now made of iron press at any time to correct or prevent a noted fault in print. Impression could be varied in any part of the form of type, and more or less ink could be put upon any part of the page. Every part of the press or form of type could be approached with little inconvenience. Many presses were needed by the first printers, but their very simple construction made them relatively inexpensive. What was deficient in the press and its product had to be supplied by adding to the number of presses and pressmen, and by insisting on a greater show of skill and resourceful- ness from the workmen. He was a petty printer who had but one or two presses. The Ripoli Press began its work with seven presses. Koburger of Nuremberg is said to have made use of twenty- three. When the pressmen were skilled, watchful, and had proper materials, and their hearts were in their work, they did well; but if they were unskilled, hurried, or careless, they did their work badly. It was then as it is now, the man more than the press is the factor that produces neat presswork. As a rule the early pressmen did their work with ability. The hand press now bought and used by amateur book- makers is much unlike its prototype: the frame is all of iron, three or four times larger, and ten times as powerful, but it is still much inferior in strength and general efficiency to the cylinder printing machine that in turn has supplanted it. There is a tradition that a press of iron of large size was made in France at the close of the eighteenth century, but the first useful press of iron was devised by Earl Stanhope about the year 1800. It had a platen large enough to cover all the type on its bed, so that one side of the sheet could be perfectly printed at one impression. It secured immediate approval fi'om printers everywhere. Soon after 192 Press improved slowly came other forms of hand press and a useful machine platen press (Adams) of American invention. The cylinder printing machine followed, and by this apparatus books are now swiftly printed on sheets three and four times larger than those of the early press. The following illustration (plate 41) of Death seizing a compositor and two pressmen, with a bookseller, is from La Grant [sic] Danse Macabre des Hommes et des Femmes, 4to, Lyons, 1499. The certainty of death was a favorite sub- ject for moralists of the fifteenth century, and often appeared in paintings on the walls of convents and churches, as well as in books for the illiterate. This crude representation of the interior of an early printing house and bookseller's shop cannot be accepted as accurate in detail as to the construc- tion of the early hand press, but it fairly enough suggests its rude joints and its need of upright braces to prevent a waste upward of the purposed downward pressure. It shows also the old inking ball, and the artist's dim recollection of the case of type and the composing-stick for type-setting.^ ' Improvement in construction came slowly. In his prosperous days Christopher Plantin (about 1576) had the platens of his seven- teen presses faced with sheet copper to cover the cracks and dents that gradually developed in the beechwood. In 1620Willem Jansen Blaew, a mathematical instrument maker of Amsterdam, made other reforms in construc- tion that were generally adopted. His most important improvement was the attachment of an iron shaft across and below the bed, with a drum of wood in its center on which were fastened strips or girths of leather that enabled the pressman by the aid of a crank at the end of a shaft to move to and fro with more facility the type on the bed under the platen. In the older form of press the pressman had to shove in and pull out the form of type on the bed to receive or release its impression from the platen by gripping the side of the carriage that held the bed. Greater productiveness from the press does not seem to have been seriously attempted until near the close of the eighteenth cen- tury. The detailed description of a new press was read before the French Academy in 1783, and it was approved by the govern- ment. The inventor, M. Anisson le fils, Director of the Imperial Printing House, introduced a bed of sheet copper 18 X 22^ polices, and a platen cased in copper 19 X 23 pouces. (The pouce is 1^ American inches.) Copper, iron, and steel were freely used in other parts. The press so reconstructed was much larger and stronger, more carefully adjusted and fitted for printing more pages, but it was unavoidably more expensive, and for that reason did not supplant the press of Blaew beyond France. A full description of this new press was published at Paris in 1785, in a quarto of 40 pages, with four large copperplates explaining its mechanism. 193 Old and new methods of presswork Critics of authority adjudge the ordinary book printing of our time as mediocre and commonplace, decidedly inferior to that of fair Italian books of the fifteenth century. To a limited extent this judgment is just. Modern presswork does lack the clearness, firmness and blackness then readily obtained in the older book by the use of large type, damp paper, and an elastic impression that often covered not only the face of the types, but a small part of their shoulders, making the shoulders of the letter appear in print really thicker and blacker than was intended by the punch- cutter. The broader sm*face produced by the spongy impression of a woolen blanket favored a generous display of ink.^ A page of type on 16- or 18-point body would retain more ink than one on 10 -point body; the ink that would appear full black on the larger type would seem gray or feeble on the small type. The scant surface of the platen on the early press favored a closer scrutiny by the pressman of the print it produced. An early notion was that clearness and blackness could be best attained by a "dwell on the bar" — that is, by staying for a few seconds the impression at its maximum, so the ink transferred to paper could be forced not merely upon but below the surface of the pliable paper. ' " The presswork in incunabula is much less uniformly good than is generally admitted. There is no shorter way of becoming con- vinced of its deficiencies than to look through a book to find a passage which will yield a satisfactoi-y facsimile, for while it is compara- tively easy to make a perfect reproduction of a perfect original, the smallest imperfection is exaggerated at every stage, and the remedy of ' touching up ' is not one which can safely be employed, except under the most stringent precautions. The difficulty caused by bad presswork is greatly increased by the relent- less activity of the rubricator in putting his little stroke or dab of color on every majuscule as it caught his eye. The little dabs of color are nearly always in red, occasionally in yel- low, and both red and yellow photograph black! Where the rubricator was heavy- handed, reproduction becomes impossible, and several books may have to be searched through to find a choice of pages where his zeal has flagged and the obscuring color-spots are absent. A considerable choice of pages is almost a necessity, for the specimens to be reproduced will lose all their utility unless they contain all or most of the characteristic letters which distinguish a fount as used by one printer from similar founts in the posses- sion of other firms." Pollard, Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century, p. xxiii. 194 Plate 41 tefecat/mnotmcnecat <\nchamiectcatnt frj!)o6ifw taiet impmu rraffi retteretm: O^giwf icoc p:emit (V mobicoe/cunctw bominatuv* Catt| buci^ue qj; piindpiii^ c3miime ^ fouft nu(Ccment % fotiucageo^ con$noifKouurtet:« Puis (\nt (a mztnom cfpic Impzime auom toue Ce6 coure 5De famctc t^cofogie iEoKf) 'becret/it poetem/ Pat ml art pfufieuta fwtg^am dStre Keffnccc»)c(lcfergur i^ee tiOHfoire bee gene font biuere fESue amnt \)oue irce apace Poue me rcgarb^ be fte>) pace if ai/fcj fiuree tmiiitenant Confer iDowe f anft/a quef gofar^ Opetti^ icy)^^o(?re pcnfcc :£ommmt iDoue iccufi^ mart^ont £dmmcemcnt ncfl pas fnfcc Ci^ftfoaire C[<3^ bonfet 3(c ctoj) que ow j>/mo2t me p2c(fe %t mt contrainrt bcmeauanter i}c/?c poe biire bef^re/fc O^ee fwree if fauft (jtieiefotffe