CHAPTER V.

THE WORKS OF FAUST AND SCHŒFFER.--LEGEND OF THE PRINTER’S DEVIL.--MONUMENTS IN GERMANY TO GUTENBERG, FAUST AND SCHŒFFER.--SEPARABLE LETTERS FIRST INVENTED IN CHINA.--CHARACTERISTICS OF ANCIENT PRINTED BOOKS.--THE “COMPOSING-STICK” AND “SETTING-RULE.”--EARLY BINDINGS.

The first book published by Faust and Schœffer, after their separation from Gutenberg, was a beautiful folio edition of the Psalter, finished on the 14th August, 1457. This is the celebrated work, so often alluded to, the first to which the name of the printer was affixed, as well as that of the place where, and the date when, it was printed. It is from this circumstance that the origin of the Art of Typography has been by certain early writers attributed to Faust rather than to Gutenberg. The fine large Gothic type with which the book is printed, (22 lines to a foot,) is exactly double the size of that cut for the ‘Mazarin’ Bible. The initial capital letters, of which there are in all 288, are from four to six lines in depth, printed in red and blue, with ornamental flower-work and figures cut in the body of the letter, and bordered with scroll-work running into the margins. In the case of the commencing initial, the letter B, this scroll-work extends from the top to the bottom of the page. The capitals commencing each sentence in the body of the work, are also in red ink, as well as whole lines interspersed here and there. The music is on a staff of four lines instead of five, the notes square-headed and diamond-shaped, the words beneath being in roman characters. These portions of the work are engraved on solid blocks. At the end of the Psalter is inserted the Faust and Schœffer badge, which thenceforth appeared in all their works.[132] This consisted of two shields (on which were their coats of arms) suspended from the branch of a tree. Beneath this was the following imprint or colophon:--

“Presens spalmorum codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibus que sufficienter distinctus, Adinventione artificiosa imprimendi et caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaratione sic effigiatus. Et ad eusebiam Dei industrie est consummatus[133] Per Johannem Fust Civem moguntinum Et Petrum Schöffer de Gernszheim. Anno domini Millesimo CCCCLVII. In vigilia Assumpcionis.”

The declaration contained in this colophon seems incompatible with the truth, as well as with the admissions of Schœffer himself, on other occasions, unless it be understood as applying to the exquisite initial letters, these being printed wholly in colours, instead of being sketched in by the hand of the rubricator or coloured by illuminators. These very letters however, it is believed by some, including Mr. Humphreys, (see p. 86 of his work,) were the work of Gutenberg; and M. Fischer in his interesting essay[134] has shewn, that in several small works[135] which issued from Gutenberg’s press before the forfeiture of his plant to Faust, the identical letters (the smaller initials) used in the Psalter, as well as some of those printed in two colours, and of which he has given fac-similes, appear. But if, as there is abundant reason to believe was the case, Schœffer was engaged as an assistant at the Zum Jungen at, or soon after the year 1450, when Gutenberg first obtained advances from Faust, these capitals, the beauty of which is undisputed, may have been, and most probably were, designed by him for the projected works for which the money was advanced; and, as his ‘inventions,’ and not the work of Gutenberg, they would be included in the property which was transferred to Faust on the termination of the law-suit. Looked at from this point of view, they may be thought to justify the assertion in the colophon of the Psalter of 1457, although there can be no doubt but that that work was partly completed while the whole property was still in the possession of Gutenberg, and that therefore to him must be attributed the honour of planning, and cutting the fount of types with which it was executed.

“The most perfect copy known of this work, (says Mr. Timperley,) is that in the Imperial Library of Vienna. It was discovered in the year 1665, near Innspruck in the castle of Ambras, where the Archduke Francis Sigismund had collected a prodigious quantity of manuscripts and printed books; taken for the most part from the famous library of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, from whence it was transported to Vienna. The book is printed in folio on vellum, and of such extreme variety, that though not more than six or seven copies are known to be in existence, all of them differ from each other in some respect. The Psalter occupies one hundred and thirty-five, and the recto the hundred and thirty-sixth, and the remaining forty-one leaves are appropriated to the litany, prayers, responses, vigils, &c. The Psalms are executed in larger characters than the hymns; the capital letters are cut in wood, with a degree of delicacy and boldness which are truly surprising: the largest of them--the initial letters of the Psalms--which are black, red, and blue, must have passed three times through the press.”

From 1457 to 1466 the following works were printed by Faust and Schœffer.

(1) The Psalter, 2d edition.--1459.

(2) Rationale divinorum Officiorum Guillelmi Durandi.--1459.

A folio work consisting of 160 leaves, with the text in two columns of 63 lines each. For this work two new founts of type were cast, of smaller sizes than those used for the Psalter of 1457, and Bible of 1455. The first was of the depth of 53 lines to a foot; the smaller 66, equivalent to the _English_ of type-founders of the present day. The latter was used for the body of the work.

(3) Constitutiones Clementis V. Papæ cum Apparatu Joannis Andreæ.--1460.

This consisted of 51 leaves of folio, two columns to a page. The text was in the larger of the above two types, surrounded by a glossary or commentary, ten times its bulk, in the smaller type. Of this work two subsequent editions were published in 1467 and 1471.

(4) Manifest des Erzbischofs von Mainz, Diether von Isenburg, gegen Adolph von Nassau.--1462.

(5) Biblia Sacra Latina Vulgatæ editionis, ex translatione et cum præfatione S. Hieronymi.--1462.

This is the Bible commonly known as the ‘Mentz,’ in order to distinguish it from the ‘Mazarin.’ It is the first published with a date; the colophon being nearly the same as that appended to the Psalter of 1457. It is, however, believed that it was originally issued with the intention of selling it as manuscript; that portion of the colophon containing the words “artificiosa adinventione imprimendi seu caracterizandi absque calami exaratione,” being omitted from some of the copies. The subsequent insertion of the above words, it is supposed, was owing to the compulsion of circumstances, which will be hereafter alluded to. The book consists of 1001 pages, each in two columns of 48 lines of the same type as that used for the text of the ‘Constitutiones.’ Copies were printed on both vellum and paper, many of the larger initials being beautifully illuminated.

(6) Bulla cruciata Sanctissimi Domini nostri Papæ (Pii II.) contra Turchos.--1464.

The heading is in the Psalter type, the text in that of the ‘Rationale.’

(7) Liber sextus Decretalium Domini Bonifacii Papæ VIII. cum glossa.--1465.

A work of 141 leaves of large folio, in double columns. The type of the text is the same as that of the Bible of 1462; the glossary is in that of the ‘Rationale.’

(8) M. T. Ciceronis De Officiis Libri III Paradoxa et Versus XII sapientium.--1465.

This work, “the first tribute of the new art to polite literature,” and the first in which Greek characters (cut in wood) appeared, is a handsome quarto (or small folio) of 88 leaves[136] with 28 lines to a page, in the same type as the ‘Rationale.’ The striking peculiarity of this book is, that it is the first in which ‘leads,’ spacing the lines apart from one another, are used. Great care seems to have been taken to print it with the utmost elegance. The fine large initial letters of the Psalter of 1457 were again used, printed in blue and red inks; and in some copies the blank spaces left for illuminated letters were filled up in the highest style of art. The most elaborately finished specimens are decorated with borders round the pages, in the same style and evidently by the same hand that was employed for that purpose, on the superb copies of the Mazarin Bible of 1455. That the printers were growing proud of their art is evident by the colophons they now used. That to the Decretals is in the following terms:--

“Presens hujus sexti Decretalium opus alma in urbe Magontia inclyte nationis Germanice, quam Dei clementia tam alto ingenii lumine donoque gratuito ceteris terrarum nacionibus preferre illustrareque dignatus est. Non atramento, plumali canna, neque ærea, sed artificiosa quadam adinventione imprimendi, etc. etc. per Joh. Fust civem et Petrum Schoiffer de Gernsheym. Anno. Dom. MCCCCLXV. die verò 17, mensis decembris.”

The colophon to the ‘Offices’ differs. It is as follows:--

“Presens Marci Tuly clarissimum opus. Johannes Fust Mogintinus civis non atramento plumali canna neque ærea, sed arte quadam perpulcra, Petri manu pueri mei feliciter effeci finitum Anno MCCCCLXV.”

(9) Grammatica vetus rhytmica.--1466.

A work of eleven leaves of small folio, in the type of the ‘Rationale.’ The concluding lines are as follows:--

“Actis ter denis jubilaminis octo bis annis Moguntia Rheni me condit et imprimit amnis Hinc Nazareni sonet oda per Ora Johannis Namque sereni luminis est scaturigo perennis.”

In the same year the book “S. Augustini Liber de Arte Predicande” appeared. It is attributed to the press of Faust and Schœffer, but I have no means of further particularising it.

The year 1462 was memorable for the siege and sack of Mentz by the Elector Archbishop, Count Adolphus of Nassau. After the capture of the city, Faust proceeded to Paris with a supply of Bibles, amongst which were no doubt a goodly number of the edition only just then completed. Tradition has it, that he sold one of these Bibles to the King for 750 crowns, and another to the Archbishop for 300; and that gradually lowering his prices he at last disposed of copies for 50 and 40 crowns a-piece.[137] The King and the Archbishop, comparing their purchases, which they had bargained for as manuscripts, found so exact a conformity between them, as to be convinced that they were produced by some other method than that of transcribing; besides which, it was impossible that two such Bibles could be executed by the same hand in a lifetime. Upon inquiry, it was found that a considerable number of similar copies had been sold in the city. Hereupon orders were given to apprehend Faust, who was accordingly seized, tried for witchcraft, and condemned to be executed as a wizard in league with the Devil. So runs the tale; in which fact and fiction have been strangely blended, the latter greatly predominating,--John Faust the banker, and one of the three first printers of Mentz, being confounded with Jean Frederic Faust, a charlatan and almanac maker of the sixteenth century, who to ensure his almanacs a large sale, advertized them as actually dictated to him by Beelzebub. It was thus that the legend obtained currency, that Faust of Mentz invented printing in consequence of a compact entered into between himself and the Evil One. The diabolical stigma once attached to the profession, the monks and scribes, the ‘brief-men’ of the day, took care that it should remain. Hence the origin of the term “Printer’s Devil,” the by no means complimentary honorific bestowed upon youngsters on their first initiation into the mysteries of the Divine and Noble Art.

No doubt the sale of his Bibles in Paris, the great book-mart of the day, excited a considerable cabal against Faust, on the part of the scribes; who would readily enough assert that such works could only have been produced by the aid of witchcraft. An assertion of this nature was, at that time, dangerous in the extreme to the party against whom it was made. Authors, writing shortly after the time of Faust’s visit, say that such a charge was made, and that he had to leave the city in consequence. The most effectual way of rebutting it would be the avowal of the method adopted in bringing out the work, and this was done by the insertion, in freshly printed leaves, of the words mentioned in page 358 as having been omitted from the early copies. It has been urged, that it was impossible for Faust to have attempted the imposition of passing these Bibles off as manuscripts, inasmuch as he had already divulged the fact of his printing such works in the imprint to the Psalter of 1457. But that imprint applied to that work alone; and Faust, who was a sharp man of business, would not have purposely omitted from the imprint to the Bible, that part of the sentence which notified that the work was done “by a newly invented art of casting letters, printing,” &c., unless he had intended to derive a profit by so doing. There does not however, seem to be any foundation for the assertion that he was brought to trial. His absence from Paris was a very temporary one. It is certain he was well received by persons of eminence there, and ultimately succeeded in establishing an agency for the sale of his books in the city, in spite of the opposition of the scribes. In 1466, he made another business visit to Paris, where he was taken ill, and died, as some suppose, of a pestilence which was raging at the time, to which, as he was then seventy-one years of age, he would have fallen an easy victim. His remains were interred with honor, in the Church of St. Victor. “An anniversary mass was afterwards appointed to be said for the repose of his soul, on the presentation by Peter Schoiffher and Conrad Fust of a copy of the ‘Epistles of Jerome,’ printed on parchment, and considered so important a work, that the Abbé of St. Victor deemed it right to pay back the sum of twelve gold crowns, the work exceeding by that sum the value of the fees due for the annual masses. This fact is contained in an entry in the ‘Necrology of St. Victor,’ which is preserved at Paris, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, (MSS. fonds St. Victor). The copy of the ‘Epistles of St. Jerome’ here alluded to is now in the library of the Arsenal.”[138]

After Faust’s death, Schœffer continued the business in partnership with his father-in-law Conrad Faust, who did not however take an active share in its management, and who died about the year 1479. Conrad Helif and Dr. Humery seem also to have been for a time connected with him. From 1467 to 1503, the date of Schœffer’s death, he printed, according to Wetter, 49 works,[139] several of which were second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth editions of those previously issued. The agency which John Faust the elder had established in Paris for the sale of his books, became an emporium to which other printers besides Schœffer sent the productions of their presses. This was managed by one Hermann de Stathoen, who had been appointed by Schœffer; but he dying in Paris, in 1474, an unnaturalized foreigner, the whole stock of books in his charge was confiscated by the King, Louis XI. Schœffer at once made such representations to the monarch as led to a royal decree, awarding him the sum of 2425 crowns, by way of compensation for the confiscated property. Besides the agency at Paris, Schœffer established business relations at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, where in 1479, he was entered on the roll of burghers. In 1489 he became one of the secular judges of Mentz. A wealthy, an honoured, and an influential citizen, he died, it is supposed, in the year 1503. His last work was a fourth edition of his celebrated Psalter, published in 1502. The next year, his eldest son, John, issued the “Mercurius Trismegistus,” which is declared in the imprint to be his first work, and by him the business was continued until 1538.[140]

The death of Schœffer brings us to a point in the narrative, where we may pause a moment, to note the progress of the art, of which, next to Gutenberg, he was the most eminent founder. Perhaps no art ever rose to perfection with such rapidity, after its groundwork had been completed, as that of Typography. Little more than thirty years had elapsed from the time of printing the _Biblia Pauperum_ from wooden blocks, when Gutenberg’s separable hand-cut letters were followed and superseded by Schœffer’s cast fusile metal types. The art, which with Faust’s assistance, Gutenberg founded and Schœffer perfected, remains to this day essentially the same that it was in 1455. Steam power and machinery may to a large extent have superseded the old hand-press invented by Gutenberg; and the art of stereotyping may also have multiplied the power of the types in disseminating and cheapening useful knowledge; but the foundation and principles of Letter-press Printing remain unaltered and unalterable. Types, ink, and pressure, still produce books as they were first produced, and the finest productions of the present day are not superior in Typographic beauty, or aught else that stamps a work a masterpiece, to the best efforts of the Fathers of the Art, four hundred years and more ago.

It has been reserved for the Nineteenth century to render due honor to the “grand Typographical Triumvirate,” as they have been termed, for the noble Art by which

“New shape and voice the immaterial thought Takes from the invented speaking page sublime; The Ark which mind has for it refuge wrought, Its floating Archive down the floods of Time.”

With this object in view, the Gutenberg Society, to which all the writers of the Rhenish provinces belong, meet yearly at Mentz, there to celebrate the fame of Gutenberg, the chief inventor. And in 1837, a grateful posterity, animated by similar sentiments, erected in the same city, in commemoration of the Four Hundredth anniversary of the Origin of the Art, a monumental statue to his memory. On the festival at the inauguration of the statue (August 14, and following days), the Provost of Mentz published an address, to the following sentences from which every reader will doubtless most cordially assent. “If,” says the ardent Provost, “the mortal who invented that method of fixing the fugitive sounds of words which we call the Alphabet, has operated on mankind like a divinity, so also has Gutenberg’s genius brought together the once isolated inquirers, teachers and learners,--all the scattered and divided efforts for extending God’s kingdom over the whole civilized earth,--as though beneath one temple. Gutenberg’s invention, not a lucky accident, but the golden fruit of a well considered idea,--an invention made with a perfect consciousness of its end,--has, above all other causes, for more than four centuries, urged forward and established the dominion of science; and what is of the utmost importance, has immeasurably advanced the mental formation and education of the people. This invention, a true intellectual sun, has mounted above the horizon, first of the European Christians, and then of the people of other climes and other faiths, to an ever-enduring morning. It has made the return of barbarism, the isolation of mankind, the reign of darkness, impossible for all future times. It has established a public opinion,--a court of moral judicature common to all civilized nations, whatever natural divisions may separate them, as much as for the provinces of one and the same state. In a word, it has formed fellow-labourers at the never-resting loom of Christian European civilization in every quarter of the world, in almost every island of the ocean.”

The example set by the citizens of Mentz was a few years later followed by those of Strasburg, in which city, as already stated, Gutenberg’s earliest efforts were made; nor were the inhabitants of Frankfort-on-the-Maine long behind,--excelling even those of Strasburg and Mentz, by combining in one grand group the statues of Gutenberg, Faust and Schœffer. Of these several specimens of the sculptor’s art Mr. Humphreys gives the following account:--

“It was not till the nineteenth century that worthy memorials of the great founder of the Printing-Press in Germany were erected. The first was that at Mayence. As a statue it is not equal to the one of Coster at Haarlem, although the work of Thorwaldsen. It was executed at Rome in 1835, and cast in Paris in 1837. The gown of the period with its fur collar, or rather cape, is effective enough as a mere matter of costume, and so is the furred cap closely copied from supposed authentic portraits of Gutenberg. One hand holds a book, and the other, types; but the general effect is tame and unimpressive. It is well that the great name of Thorwaldsen should be thus allied to that of Gutenberg, but it is not one of the great Dane’s most successful works. The inscription, stating that it was erected by the citizens of Mayence, with the concurrence of the whole of Europe, is grandly simple, as it ought to be.

“The statue at Strasburg, the scene of Gutenberg’s first typographic efforts, is the work of the celebrated French sculptor David d’Anger, and the market-place in which it is erected is now called La Place Gutenberg. The position of the figure is full of life and spirit; a proof-sheet is held proudly forward, bearing the inscription, as though in answer to one of the first fiats of Creation--‘Let there be light.’ It is intended to express that, through the medium of the Printing Press, intellectual light came, as expressed in the words, ‘And there was light.’ On the pedestal are four bassi-relievi, in which the dissemination of knowledge by means of the Printing Press is illustrated. In the one on the front, all the great authors of modern Europe are grouped round a Printing Press; among them Shakespeare, Corneille, Bacon, Dante, Voltaire, and Goethe, are conspicuous.

“The Memorial at Frankfort is, on the whole, more impressive than either of the preceding. It consists of three separate statues, forming together a single group. The statues are those of Gutenberg, Faust and Schœffer, who each assisted in the first great work of founding the Printing Press in Germany, and whose memorials found a fitting place in the imperial city, which was still the seat of the Germanic Diet at the time of the Memorial in 1837. The subsidiary figures which embellish the face of the structure,--Literature, &c., &c.--are very good and appropriate. The entire composition is imposingly raised on steps connected with the secondary pedestals, which support the allegorical figures. Altogether, the memorial is a fine one. But it has one defect--there is no name nor description of any kind--so that travellers unacquainted with the subject, might mistake the group for that of any other celebrated triumvirate. A statue, even of Shakespeare, should be accompanied at least by the simple name.”[141]

Still, although Gutenberg is most justly entitled to the honour of being considered the inventor of the Art of Typography, as now practised in Europe, he was not, in fact, the first who printed books from separate moveable types. In this, as in block printing, the Chinese again bear away the palm. For, singularly enough, it is ascertained that although the general mode of printing in China is, and always has been, from wooden blocks, yet separable letters were known to the Chinese as early as the Eleventh century. For a time, single characters made of clay and baked hard were used in that empire, but were soon abandoned for the mode now almost universally practised, except for the Imperial Calendar, published once a quarter, and the Pekin Gazette, issued daily, which are still wretchedly printed from moveable types made of a plastic gum.

The account of the invention is too interesting to be omitted. In the period King-li (between 1041 and 1048) one of the people, a blacksmith named Pi-ching, invented another manner of printing with _ho-pan_, or tablets formed of moveable types. This name is still retained in the Imperial Printing Office at Pekin. On a fine and glutinous earth, formed into plates, Pi-ching engraved the characters most in use. Each character was a type. These he burnt in the fire to harden them. When he wished to print he took a frame of iron, divided interiorly and perpendicularly by strips of the same metal (Chinese being read vertically); this he laid on a table of sheet iron coated with a fusible gum composed of resin, wax, and lime; he then inserted the types, placing them one close against the other. Each frame, when filled, formed a tablet. This was brought near the fire to make the gum melt, after which a level piece of wood was pressed forcibly on the surface of the types, by which means they were pushed down into the gum and became firm and even as a stone. The tablets were then printed from in the usual manner. When a new character was wanted it was immediately prepared on the spot, and the inventor shewed the advantage of clay over wood; there was neither grain nor porosity, with a greater facility of separation from the gum when required for distribution.

At Pi-ching’s death, all this apparatus was carefully preserved by his successors. Printing, however, went on in the old way, the reason being that the Chinese has not, as other languages, an alphabet made up of a few characters, with which all sorts of books may be printed, but a separate type is wanted for every word; and as the language is divided into classes of 106 sounds, so 106 cases (part of the furniture of a Printing Office) would be required, each one to contain a prodigious number of types, thus rendering the mechanical task of composing and distributing, one of enormous difficulty and labour. It was easier and cheaper to follow the usual method, and print either from blocks of wood or plates of stereotyped copper.[142]

All honour to the memory of Pi-ching, the Chinese blacksmith! One might almost be tempted to suppose, did we but believe in the doctrine of metempsychosis, that after a lapse of 400 years, disgusted at the neglect of his invention in the East, his spirit migrated to the West, and that in Gutenberg he was permitted to be born again. A like spirit animated them both, and to the end of time their labours will live and their memories be blest.

The account given in the foregoing description of the method of composing his types used by Pi-ching, is not very dissimilar to that said to have been adopted by the first Typographers of the Western World. Frames, or coffins, were made of planks of wood, in which rectangular hollows were cut the size of the pages to be printed; and in these the types, after having been strung together, were placed in horizontal lines, the ends of the lines and the bottoms of the pages being tightly wedged in, to prevent slips and damage while on the press.

All works printed during the first few years after the invention of Typography, were of the size of large or small folio. The latter was what is now-a-days called quarto, from the sheets being folded into four;--then, for the smaller size, whole sheets were cut into two, on each of which two pages were printed, in order to suit the presses, and the stocks of type the printers possessed. These sheets, or half sheets, were printed in sections of 3, 4, or 5, called ternions, quaternions, and quinternions. On the backs of these sections strips of parchment were sometimes pasted, to guard against tears when the sheets were stitched together by the book-binder. The first and third pages so printed were called those on the _recto_ of the sheet, the second and fourth those on the _verso_. A quaternion consisted of eight formes; the first, containing pages 1 and 16, and the second 2 and 15, formed the outer sheet; the next sheet consisted of pages 3 and 14, 4 and 13, the third and fourth formes; the third sheet consisted of pages 5 and 12, 6 and 11, the fifth and sixth formes; the fourth sheet consisted of pages 7 and 10, 8 and 9, the seventh and eighth formes; the next quaternion commenced with pages 17 and 32, and so on. When all the formes were printed, the sheets of which the quaternion consisted were folded one inside the other, the pages then reading regularly on from the first to the sixteenth. So long as books represented fac-similes of manuscripts,--which was the object originally aimed at,--to print in this way was a matter easily accomplished. But as the new art drove out the old, and scribes turned compositors and pressmen, and manuscripts came to be carelessly written, this could no longer be done. Larger founts of type then became necessary, to enable the printer to complete the whole number of pages contained in the section; and to avoid this necessity as much as possible, quartos, octavos, and duodecimos would be resorted to, a single sheet folded and re-folded serving equally as well in binding as a ternion, quaternion, or quinternion of folio sheets. This, of course, led to the ‘imposition’ of pages in formes of 4, 8, and 12 pages and upwards, according to the size of the book printed.

Title-pages, folios, running head-lines, catch-lines, signatures, and imprints with dates and names, were matters about which the Fathers of Typography did not at first much concern themselves. Their orthography, as well as their divisions of words, was arbitrary; their abbreviations abominable, and their punctuation absurd; the comma and the semicolon were unknown, the points made use of being an oblique dash (/) the colon (:) and the full point (.); these were occasionally varied as follows, ./ /. /˙ ./˙ ˙/. // ∴ .:. ∴:∴ &c. A straight dash | supplied the place of a hyphen, and a parallel || indicated the end of a paragraph. The first leaf of a book was generally left a blank, and a blank space was left at the head of the commencing chapter of a work, to be filled up with a vignette or an illuminated scroll. Spaces were also left for initial capitals, and for capitals commencing sentences, when small letters were not used instead. These were so left in order to be filled in by the rubricator, who sometimes carelessly inserted a wrong letter. Names of persons and places were printed indifferently with or without capitals.[143] But in all these matters the printers merely followed bad examples--that of the scribes whose downfall they were effecting. One feature is especially characteristic of the oldest books, viz. the irregularity of the lines on the right hand margin of the columns or pages, particularly when the larger kinds of type were used. This arose from the mode of composing, which interfered with the spacing out of the words to the ends of the lines. When however that ingenious implement, the metal composing stick--the printer’s space-compelling gauge,--was invented, this defect was remedied; and before the first generation of printers passed away, all the blemishes above recounted had disappeared from the works of those who deserve to be distinguished as Masters in their Art. The engraving given below will explain the nature of this implement better than any written description. The slide, running parallel with the head, with its slotted foot into which was inserted the nut for the screw which passed through and fastened it down to the ledge on which the types rested, enabled the compositor to ‘set’ his types with accuracy to any measure required, and to space out the words to the right hand, so as to make them line in the margin as straight and even as the commencing letters on the left hand. With the aid of the useful adjunct to the ‘stick,’ the ‘setting-rule,’--(a strip of brass the height and length of the line, with a projecting neb at the top right hand corner)--he could compose line after line with ease and speed. The special use of the ‘rule’ was to prevent the letters as they were lifted into the ‘stick,’ catching on those of the line below, which, without the interposition of the polished strip of brass, they were liable to do from the nicks in their shanks. When the ‘stick’ was full, he could also with the assistance of the ‘rule’ empt out its number of lines into his ‘galley,’ where, when a sufficient number was collected, they would be made into pages, ready for the forme. The inventor of the composing stick is not known; but as it appears in the hands of the compositor in the engraving facing page 116, and the original of that engraving was first printed about 1498, and the ‘stick’ must have then been in use for some time; and as the principle of the slide is analogous to that which would be adopted in regulating the width of the chamber in the moulds for casting types, it is highly probable that the credit of its invention is due to Schœffer, who had previously immortalized himself by inventing the art of type-founding.

Besides the appearance of the insides of early printed books, their ordinary outside bindings demand attention here. Many of the finer specimens were cased in sumptuous covers, in which the art of the goldsmith and jeweller was richly displayed; but for common use a stiff sheet of parchment generally sufficed, the edges of which were folded in, a blank leaf being pasted over them. Others, somewhat superior, had boards of beech or oak for their sides, over which was pasted a sheep-skin leather, on which figures were stamped or embossed;[144] while others again had stiff covers made of waste sheets, or remnants of unsaleable copies, cut down and pasted together. These last have furnished many unique specimens of the works of the earliest printers; and whenever any such are suspected to lie beneath an ancient book-cover, the cover is carefully removed and subjected to a variety of processes to separate its parts, and compel it to give up to the ardent gaze of the palæotypographist, its possible treasure of an invaluable unique specimen of the work of a Gutenberg, a Schœffer, a Zell, a Jenson, a Martens, a Caxton, or some other worthy of the olden time.

FOOTNOTES:

[132] “The early printers generally marked their publications by some monogram or cipher peculiar to themselves, and containing their initials, their arms, or some curious device. These are all well known to the initiated bibliopole, and their presence on a title-page is received as evidence of the genuineness of a scarce copy. The oldest of them is that of Faust and Schœffer, annexed to their first Psalter, and consisting of two shields tied together and hanging from a branch. Raphelengius, of Leyden, adopted the anchor; Sporinus of Basle, chose the arion; Jansen of Amsterdam, the sphere; the Elzevirs exhibited the olive tree, and the celebrated Aldus had for a device, the anchor and dolphin.”--(“History of Printing,” published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). Gotfridus de Os, of Gouda, had for his device an elephant and castle, combined with the arms of the city.

[133] In the colophon to the second edition of this Psalter, printed in 1459, the word ‘spalmorum’ is corrected to ‘psalmorum,’ and instead of the words “ad eusebiam Dei industrie est consummatus” etc., the following occur:--“ad laudem Dei ac honorem sancti Jacobi est consummatus per Johannem Fust, civem moguntinem et Petrum Schoiffer de Gernszheim clericum. Anno Domini millesimo CCCCLIX, XXIX die mensis Augusti.”

[134] “Essai sur les Monumens Typographiques de Jean Gutenberg, à Mayence, l’an X.” [1801.]

[135] Among the works referred to was a Donatus. Mr. HUMPHREYS, remarking upon these letters, says:--“If these initials, of which M. Fischer gives admirable fac-similes, were really executed under the direction of Gutenberg, they must of necessity greatly enhance the wonder and admiration felt for the author of the marvellously perfect workmanship of the first Bible; and also detract, to an equal extent, from the repute long held by Schoiffher as the Printer of the famous Psalter, with its fine coloured initials vaunted as the work of the press alone, and not produced by the illuminator’s pencil; for if M. Fischer be correct in attributing the work in question to Gutenberg, then the credit of the initials printed in colours in the Psalter must also be given to Gutenberg, as all the lesser initials in that noble specimen of the printer’s art, are the identical letters found by M. Fischer illustrating the ‘Donatus’ attributed by him without hesitation to the press of Gutenberg, as being printed with the same type as the first Bible. The fine free style of these letters, and their perfect execution, is very remarkable.... That the ‘Donatus’ in question was printed, not only before Schoiffher’s Psalter, but also before the Bible, appears incontrovertibly proved by the fact, that the five leaves in question of this ‘Donatus,’ were found in the cover of a book of accounts dated 1451. The testimony of M. Fischer is above suspicion; but it is to be regretted, that this most important and interesting monument of the labours of Gutenberg is now no longer to be found. At the time that M. Fischer’s examination and description were made, it was in the public library of Mayence; but at that time several national monuments were removed to Paris, and others lost in the general ransacking that took place, and the interesting ‘Donatus’ described by M. Fischer is among the documents now no longer to be found either at Paris or Mayence. Although it would thus appear that the credit of the letters in question is due to Gutenberg, I shall have some further remarks to make on the subject in describing the famous Psalter of Schoiffher. The Bibliothèque Nationale possesses two leaves of a ‘Donatus’ printed with Gutenberg’s Bible type.”--_Hist. of Art of Printing_, p. 77.

[136] WETTER, p. 527; but HUMPHREYS, p. 88, says “twenty-eight leaves.” Not being in a position to make a reference to any copy of the work itself, I am unable to say which of these authorities is right. One of the finest specimens of this work extant, is that in the celebrated Astor Library at New York. The paper is as clean and the ink as fresh as the day on which it was printed. There are also in this Library several other Typographical treasures. Amongst them will be found the “Catholicon” of John of Genoa, printed at Augsburg in 1469; two specimens of Caxton, one of them a few leaves of the “Recuyell des Histories de Troye,” printed in 1471, and the other, Higden’s “Polychronicon,” printed in London, 1482. Glanville’s “De Proprietatibus Rerum,” printed by Wynken de Worde, the successor of Caxton, in 1494, is also a handsome specimen.

[137] The differences in these prices lead to the conclusion that the higher prices must have been given for copies of the Bible of 1455, and the lower for those of 1462; the charge made for each varying according to the amount of ornamentation in illuminated letters and marginal decorations.

[138] HUMPHREYS, p. 89.

[139] The following is a brief list of these works:--

1. Thomas de Aquino, secunda secunde, 1467. 2. Clementis V. Constitutiones, 2d edit. 1467. 3. Institutiones Justiniani, 1468. 4. Grammatica vetus rhytmica, 2d edit. 1468. 5. Thomas de Aquino, Expositio quarti libri sententiarum, 1469. 6. Bonifacii VIII. Liber Sextus decretalium, 2d edit. 1470. 7. Hieronymi Epistolæ, 1470. 8. Mammotractus, sive Dictionarium vocabulorum, 1470. 9. Decretalium liber Sextus, 3d edit. 1470. 10. Valerius Maximus, liber factorum, etc. 1471. 11. Clementis V. Constitutiones, 3d edit. 1471. 12. S. Thomas, Prima pars secunde, 1471. 13. Biblia Sacra Latina, 1472. 14. Decretum Gratiani, 1472. 15. Justiniani Institutiones, 2d edit. 1472. 16. Bonifacii VIII. liber Sextus decretalium, 4th edit. 1473. 17. Augustinus, de civitate Dei, 1473. 18. Gregorii IX. nova compilatio decretalium, 1473. 19. Turrecremata, Expositio psalterii, 1474. 20. Henrici Herp Speculum aureum, 1474. 21. Justiniani codex institutionum, 1475. 22. S. Bernardi Sermones, 1475. 23. Bonifacii, &c., 5th edit. 1476. 24. Turrecremata, &c., 2d edit. 1476. 25. Justiniani, &c., 3d edit. 1476. 26. Bonifacii, &c., 6th edit. 1476. 27. Decisiones rote Romane, 1477. 28. Justiniani Novellæ constitutiones, 1477. 29. Pauli Burgensis Scrutinium Scripturarum, 1478. 30. Turrecremata, Expositio super psalterio, 1478. 31. Bartholomæi de Chaymis confessionale, 1478. 32. Gregorii IX. Decretales, 1479. 33. Turrecremata Meditationes, 1479. 34. Joannis de Wesalia Paradoxa, 1479. 35. Agenda Moguntina, 1480. 36. Herbarius, 1482. 37. Missale Moguntinum, 1483. 38. Herbarius cum herbarum figuris, 1484. 39. Ortus sanitatis, 1485. 40. Missale Ecclesie Misniensis, 1485. 41. Breviarium Moguntinum, 1487. 42. Missalium opus ad usum Ecclesie Cracoviensis, 1487. 43. Legenda et miracula S. Goaris, 1488. 44. Psalmorem Codex, 1490. 45. Chronecken der Sassen, 1492. 46. Missale Moguntinum, 2d edit. 1493. 47. Ordnung des kaiserl. Kammergerichts, 1495. 48. Missale Wratislaviense, 1499. 49. Psalterium, 1502.

[140] Another son, or perhaps a grandson, Peter, established himself as a printer in the city of Worms, not far distant from Mentz. It was at his press that William Tyndale’s version of the first English translation of the New Testament was printed (in 1525 or 1526), after failing to get it done at the press of P. Quentell of Cologne. A press was established at Friesingen in 1495, by Joann. Schæffler.

[141] _Hist. of Art of Printing_, p. 216.

[142] “One of the most remarkable typographical displays in the great Exhibition of 1851 was the collection of Chinese types, or at least types to represent Chinese characters, in the Zollverein department. They were manufactured by Beyerhaus of Berlin, for the American Missionary Society. The Chinese vocabulary is made up of a number of distinct words, which are not built up from component letters, as in European languages, but have a good deal of the hieroglyphic effect about them. To imitate these words or characters by moveable types has always been deemed a difficult matter. M. Beyerhaus has analyzed the lines and dots of the Chinese language, so as to make 4200 letters out of them, or elements which will serve the compositor in lieu of letters. The steel punches of all these 4200 types were shewn; and by various combinations of them, about 24,000 Chinese words or characters can be imitated; and it was very interesting to see copies of the Bible and the New Testament printed in Chinese by the aid of these types.”--_Curiosities of Industry_--Printing; its Modern Varieties, by G. DODD, p. 4.

[143] This may sometimes have been owing to a scarcity of capital letters. An amusing story is told of a jobbing printer, who was seen printing the label “Lodgings to let,” in gold capital letters on a blue ground, with the second G left out. Upon the omission being pointed out to him, he said “Pshaw! I should like to know why a printer should not spell Lodgings with one G, when he has but that one in his fount!”

[144] Some of these bindings were wonderful specimens of patient labour. Wooden boards as thick as the panels of a door, studded with large brass nails with ornamented heads and massive metal corners, for sides, the backs solid with paste and glue, and the fronts fastened with heavy clasps, were by no means rare. Sometimes these covers were so made as to serve as receptacles for relics. Scaliger tells us that his grandmother had a printed Psalter, the cover of which was two inches thick, the inside forming a kind of cupboard in which was a small silver crucifix; and Mr. Hansard relates having seen an ancient book, in the cover of which was a recess for a relic--a human toe!

APPENDIX.

I.--ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF PRINTING, BY J. F. FAUST OF ASCHAFFENBERG.

Joh. Fried. Faust, ein Sohn des im Jahre 1619 verstorbenen Schöffen des Reichsgerichtes und Rathes zu Frankfurt, erzhält, aus den Familienpapieren, welche die Fauste von Aschaffenberg (Abkömmlinge der Fuste von Mainz) in ihrem Archive aufbewahrten, die Geschichte der Erfindung in folgender Weise:--

“Diese jetzt erwähnte und andere mehr Scribenten, welche es von Hörensagen theils genommen, theils von einander entlehnet, seind nicht allein an dem Ort und der Zeit, sondern auch an der Person vom ersten Anfenger zweifelhafftig, ja gar ohngewis, und ist uns Teutschen nicht ein geringer Spott, dass wir solche edle Kunst zu allererst von Gott empfangen, und so mancherlet frembde Historien und Auctores lesen und schreiben, den unter anderen vortrefflichen Sachen, nicht eine Gewissheit des ersten Anfengers, ihme und gantzem Teutschland zu ewigen unsterblichen Ruhm und Lob, solten auch in getruckten und also unsterblichen Zeugnüssen beglaubt machen und beweisen, und so lange Zeyt im Zweiffel haben stecken lassen. Darumb habe ich nicht unterlassen können, dieser Sachen und Kunst gantzen Verlauf und Anfang, so viel ich dessen aus glaubhafften alten Zeugnüssen und _Documentis_, wie auch von meinem Vatter seelig, und der von seinen Eltern und also fortan, _quasi per aures et manus_ eingenommen, auch zum Theil aufgazeichnet hinterlassen, der Wahrheit und Kunst ja vielmehr Gott zu ehren, ettwas umstendlich zu erzehlen und zu beweisen.”

“Und ist anfänglich wahr, dass ein Bürger, eines ehrbarn Geschlechts und Herkommens zu Mentz gewohnet, so Johann Faust geheissen; dieser den _Studiis_ sehr ergeben, hat betrachtet, wie manch edles _ingenium_ aus Mangel der Bücher, die sogar eine lange Zeyt und hohen Verlag abzuschreiben erfordert, und nicht in eines jeden Beutel gestocken, ohnbillig verliegen, ja gar verderben müssen, und derowegen lang nachgesonnen, wie doch allerhand nützliche Bücher mit weniger Mühe gemannigfeltigt, und um geringen und billichen Preys mitgetheilt werden könten. Solchem seinem wohlmeinenden nutzlichen Wunsch und Vorhaben hat Gott wohlerspriesliches Mittel und _Modell_ gezeiget, also dass er eine _Alphabet_ Taffel, erstlich in einem _Format_ mit erhöheten Buchstaben geschnitten. Es hat ihm aber grosses Nachsinnen erfordert, bis er besondere Tinten darzu erfunden; dann die gemeine Tinte ist in den Buchstaben von Holtz und in Holtz geschnitten, verflossen, und hatt alle Buchstaben zusammengehengt, so haben auch die Licht-Flammen, daren Rus er sich auch zu gebrauchen unterstanden, ob sie wohl einen ziemlichen Abdruck geben, dannoch keinen Bestandt haben wollen, bis endlich eine schwartze zähe Tinten erfunden worden, die einen Bestandt gehabt. Als solche erfunden und solche Taffeln mit kleinen Pressen leichtlich zu trucken erst an Tag kommen seynd sie mit groser Verwunderung umb geringen Preys von jedermänniglich erkaufft und berühmt, und er darauf weiters fortzufahren verursacht worden, und den _Donat_ ebenmässig an Tag gegeben. Weil aber derselbige auf gantze Bretter geschnitten, ohngleich an Buchstaben gefallen, und auch sonst sich bald abtruchen lassen, hatt Erfinder der sich erinnert, das es besser were, mit eintzlichen Buchstaben und A. B. C. ein Buch zu setzen, als mit gantzen _columnis_ oder _paginis_ zu schneiden. Derowegen hat er die Bretter von einander geschnitten, die gesammten Buchstaben herausgenommen, und damit die Setzerey angefangen, und die abgegangene Buchstaben mit newen ersetzet.”[145]

“Weil aber solches mit ohnaufhörlicher Arbeyt geschehen müssen, und sehr langsam von statten gehen wollen, hatt es abermahl nicht geringe Hindernuss der angefangenen Kunst, auch der Pressen halben, geben wollen, darüber der Erfinder nicht in geringe Sorg und Schwermuth gerathen. Nun hatt er aber bey solcher _Invention_ etliche Diener gehabt, die ihm solch Truckerei verrichten und in andern nöthigen Sachen, als Dinten sieden, setzen, und dergleichen fleissige Hand und Hülfte gebotten. Unter denen ist einer Peter Schöffer von Gernsheimb genannt, gewesen, welcher als er seines Herrn Vorhaben erlerntt, und selbst Lust darzu bekommen, hatt ihm Gott das Glück und Gab eingeben, wie man nemlich die Buchstaben in Buntzen schneiden und nachgiessen, und also vielmahls mannigfaltigen könne, und nicht jeden Buchstaben oftmahls einzeling schneiden müsse. Dieser hat in geheim eine Buntzen von einem gantzen _Alphabet_ geschnitten, und seinem Herrn sampt den Abgus oder _Matricibus_ gezeyget, welches dam seinem Herrn Johann Fausten so wohl gefallen, dass er vor Frewden ihme sobald seine Tochter Christinam zur Ehe zu geben versprochen, und balden nachmalen auch solches würcklich vollzogen.”

“Es hatt aber mit dem Abdruck oder Nachguss dieser Buchstaben eben so viel Mühe genommen, also mit den Höltzern, dann man lang gekünstelt, biss man eine gewisse _Mixtur_ so der Gewalt der Pressen eine gute Zeyt ausstehen könne, erfunden. Als solches auch glücklich erfolget, damit solch edle Gab Gottes in geheimb verbleiben möge, haben Schwäher und Tochtermann ihre Gewerken mit Eydpflichten verbunden, solch Sachen alle in höchster Geheim und Verschwiegenheit zu halten, haben auch die Bretter und ersten Anfang, wie auch die höltzern Buchstaben in Cortel oder Schnur eingefasst, aufgehoben und zu zeyten guten Freunden gezeiget. Quæ primordia avum meum Doctorem Joh. Faust inque manibus suis Donati primam partem inter cætera vidisse MSStum posteris nobis relictum testatur.”[146] (D. h.: Dass mein Grossvater, der Doctor Johann Faust, diese Anfänge und, unter andern, den ersten Theil des Donats gesehen und in Händen gehabt habe, bezeugt eine uns Nachkömmlingen zurückgelassene Handschrift.)

“We hart aber sie ihre Gewerken verknüpfet, und sich diese Kunst in geheim zu halten unterstanden, hat es doch aus sonderlicher Schickung Gottes nicht seyn wollen noch sollen. Dann es hat sich begeben, dass Johann Faustens nechster Nachbawer Johann von Gutenberg (man ist auch der Meinung, dass Johann Faust und Gutenberg zusammen in einem Haus genannt zum Jungen in Mentz, gewohnet haben, dahero solch Haus den Nahmen auch von der Truckerey nachmahlen behalten) innen worden dass solche edle Kunst nicht allein einen grossen Ruhm bey aller Welt gemacht, sondern auch einen guten und erlichen Gewin gebracht, darumb er sich freundlich zu gemelten Fausten gethan, und seine Dienste mit Darschiessung nothwendiges Verlags anerbotten, welches er Faust gerne angenommen, bevorab weil das Werk, so er zu trucken vorhatte uff Pergament zu verfertigen, einen grosen Kosten erforderte darob sie sich vereiniget und einen aufgeschnittenen Zettel oder _Contract_ nachfolgend beygesetzen Inhalts aufgerichtet, dass was auf solch Werk gehen würde, zu Verlust und Gewinn ins gemein gehen, und alles was darzu gehörete, uff gemeinen Sold entlehnet und aufgenommen werden solte. Weil aber er Faust mehr aufgenommen und der Unkosten höher geloffen, als Gutenberg vermeinet, hatt er solchen halben Theil nich zahlen wöllen, darüber sie beyde vor das weltliche Gericht zu Mentz gerathen, das hatt auf alles Ein- und Vorbringen, auch geschenen Beweistum erkannt würde Johann Faust mit lieblichen eyd betewren, dass solch uffgenommen Geld auf das gemeine Werk gegangen, und nicht ihme allein zu Nutz kommen sey, solte Johann von Gutenberg solches zu erlegen schuldig seyn. Solchem Rechtsspruch hat Johann Faust im Refender zu Mentz zun Barfüssern ein Genügen gethan wie aus copeylich beygesetzten _Instrument_ gründlich und wahrhafftig zu ersehen. Aber Johann von Gutenberg ist darüber sehr zornig worden, darumb er nicht allein bei Anhörung des eydt nicht gewesen, sondern auch bald darauf von Mentz sich hinweg gen Strasburg gethan, vielleicht daselbst seinen eygenen Verlag gehabt, und sindt ihm dahin etliche Gefährde nachgefolget, und eine gäntzliche Trennung geschehen, dass solche herrliche Kunst nicht mehr ist geheimb behalten blieben, sondern allenthalben von _dato_ angeregten _Instruments_, so _An. 1455 datiret_ ausgebreitet worden. Und Hans von Petersheim, ein Diener Johannes Fausten und Peter Schöffers, im vierten Jahr hernach Ao. 1459, zu Frankfurt, andere, sonderlich als Mentz; Ao. 1462 verräthlichen erobert, und umb ihre Freyheit kommen, folgends anderstwo sich niedergethan, und solche Kunst ohngescheuet getrieben, offenbahret, und gemein gemacht haben. Est ist auch diess Unglück mit zugeschlagen, dass als sie ein vornehm Juristisch Buch gen Paris in Frankreich uff Pergament gedruckt, geführet und die Wahlen [Wallischen oder Wälschen] ihnen solche Kunst missgönnet, das Buch in Laugen gestossen, und mit Kratzbürsten auszuthun, aber vergeblich, unterstanden, sie solche _Exemplaria_ alle, unter dem Schein als ob der Trucker eine frembde Waar ohne _Special_ Erlaubnuss des Königs in Frankreich gebracht, _confiscirt_, darauf er _repressalias_ vom Kayser Fridrichen III. verlangt, und soviel frantzözische Kaufleute niedergeworfen, dass er seines Schadens wohl zukommen, und viel Französische Waare in sein Haus allerhant _Sorten_ bekommen, dass die Sach endlich durch beyde _Potentaten_ verglichen, uffgehoben, ut er Peter Schöffer befriediget worden.”

Man sieht, dass in diesem Berichte über den Gang der Erfindung der objektive Thatbestand, besonders was die Anfänge betrifft ganz richtig erzählt wird, und dass er nur _quoad personas_ verfälscht ist; indem Fusten das zugeschrieben wird, was Gutenbergen angehört. Es erbellt ferner daraus, dass er weder aus Trithems Werken noch aus dem Lobgedichte des Bergellanus geschöpft ist; da er umständcher als beide in’s Einzelne der Verfahrungsweisen eingeht. Auch die Angabe, Fust und Schöffer hätten nach Erfindung der gegossenen Buchstaben ihre Arbeiter mit Eiden zur Geheimhaltung der Kunst verbunden, die ersten Holztafeln aufgehoben, die einzelnen hölzernen Buchstaben in Schnüre gefaszt und nur zu Zeiten guten Freunden gezeigt, deutet, als auf ihre Quelle, auf handschriftliche oder mündliche Ueberlieferungen, die sich in der Familie Fust erhalten haben müssen. So haben sich in dem an die Herren von Glauburg übergegangenen Familienarchive des mainzischen, nach Frankfurt ausgewanderten Patriziergeschlechtes zum Jungen viele die Familie Gutenberg betreffenden Urkunden, und darunter auch das bei dem Prozesse zwischen Gutenberg und Fust errichtete Notariatsinstrument erhalten. In dem Archive der Familie Faust, welche von Aschaffenberg nach Frankfurt gekommen, und dort durch Heirath unter die Patriziergeschlechter aufgenommen worden ist, hatten sich gewiss ähnliche Urkunden und Nachrichten über die Angelegenheiten der Familien Fust und Schöffer erhalten, wie auch in dem Berichte, bei 1 und 2, ausdrücklich gemeldet wird. Joh. Friedrich Faust, durch Familieneitelkeit verleitet, verfälschte sie nur in Betreff der Personen, indem er (so wie Johann Schöffer in seinen Schluszschriften die Erfindung allein seinem Grossvater Fust zuschreib) demselben Fust, den er mit Recht für seinen Ahnen hielt, alle Ehre zuwendete, und zu diesem Behufe sogar das Instrument des Notars Helmasperger verdrehte.--WETTER, pp. 271-277.

FOOTNOTES:

[145] As wooden types were the first with which the original printers made their earliest essays in the art of Typography in Europe, it is interesting to learn that in America such types are now being used to so great an extent, that it requires the aid of the most finished machinery to supply the demand that has arisen for them. The following account of their manufacture is condensed from a narrative in the _Boston Weekly Spectator_ (Oct. 12, 1871).--About 1853 Mr. William H. Page, originally a printer, entered into the employ of Mr. J. G. Cooley, a wood type cutter at Greenville. Noticing the many defects of the process he busied his mind in devising and inventing methods for its improvement. Succeeding in his efforts, he started in business on his own account; and in 1869, having bought out Mr. Cooley, transferred the whole of the works to Norwich, Eastern Connecticut. Here, with extensive and perfect machinery, and from 35 to 40 workpeople, one-seventh of whom are females, he supplies the greater part of the wooden types used throughout the United States. The process of manufacture is as follows:--All ordinary wood type is made of rock-maple, which grows abundantly in Connecticut. The logs are first sawed across the grain into blocks an inch and an eighth thick, then steamed to force out the sap, and when dried, packed away in the seasoning house for two years. When wanted for type, they are taken to dressing machines, where horizontal revolving cutters rapidly smoothe and reduce their size with perfect uniformity; they are then skilfully planed by hand, next gum-shellaced, and dried for half a day, and sand papered, which process is again repeated. After this, they are taken to felt buffing wheels, covered with beeswax and tallow, which, revolving with exceeding swiftness, thoroughly polish the surfaces on which the letters are to be cut. The blocks are then sawed into the desired shapes, and transferred to the letter makers. These place the prepared blocks in a machine not much unlike in its appearance to an eccentric lathe, although it is not one. Set in one angle of a horizontal frame like a pentagraph, is a pencil or tracer, moved by the hand of the operator exactly in the lines of a stationary pattern or model letter. In an opposite angle, and directly over the block to be carved, is a corresponding pencil of fine steel, in reality a small bit, or gouge, which is belted to the driving power, and makes from 17,000 to 20,000 revolutions a minute, following minutely all the lines and flexions of the tracer on the pattern. A skilful operator can thus make a letter in half a minute. This part of the work is chiefly performed by girls. After leaving the cutter the letters are further dressed by a trimmer who gives them their finishing touches, when they are thoroughly oiled with linseed oil, and packed for transport to wherever ordered. The ordinary size of letters, used for Advertising placards, is 1 ft. 8 in., though occasionally some are ordered 14 ft. long, [made and printed in sections it is presumed]. These monster letters are made of a softer white wood, and gouged out on a great machine called a “router.” The smallest size manufactured is about one-third of an inch. [_B. W. S._] This is just the size of the types used for the “Appeal to Christendom against the Turks,” printed at Mentz in 1454 or 1455. What steam-driven machinery is doing for wooden types it is also doing in another form for types of cast metal. The greatest number that an expert workman could cast by the hand-mould process was about 1800 in an hour. After many years of costly experimentalizing, and frequent but not wholly fruitless failures, a machine was at last perfected in 1862, by which as many as 7600 letters an hour are turned out. With type manufactured at this rate, with steam type-composers that put together 40,000 letters an hour, (the invention of Mr. A. Mackie of Warrington), and with steam printing machines capable of perfecting 12,000 sheets (equal to 24,000 impressions) in the same space of time, (the _Times_ “Walter” machine, invented by Mr. J. C. Macdonald); the latter half of the nineteenth century is truly an era of marvels in all that concerns Letter-press Printing.

[146] Dr. Van Der Linde treats this writer with but scant ceremony. He says, (p. 76 of Hessels’ Translation) “The father of this arch-liar had written frankly and in accordance with truth--‘Joh. Faust (Fust) war Mitverleger der Buchdruckerei in der Stadt Mentze; etliche wollen wider seiner Dank ihn zu einem Inventorem haben und macken, so aber nur mit seinem Vermögen und guten Rath in der That geholfen.’--‘Joh. Faust was partner in the printing office at Mentz; some persons would make an inventor of him against his own wish; he really helped only with his money and good advice.’”

II.--ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF PRINTING, BY HADRIAN JUNIUS.

Dicam igitur quod accepi a senibus et autoritate gravibus et Reipublicæ administratione claris, quique a majoribus suis ita accepisse gravissimo testimonio confirmarunt, quorum auctoritas jure pondus habere debeat ad faciendam fidem. Habitavit ante annos centum duo de triginta Harlemi, in ædibus satis splendidis (ut documento esse potest fabrica, quæ in hunc diem perstat integra) foro imminentibus e regione Palatii Regalis, Laurentius Joannis cognomento Aedituus Custosve (quod tunc opimum et honorificum munus familia eo nomine clara hæreditario jure possidebat) is ipse, qui nunc laudem inventæ artis Typographicæ recidivam justis vindiciis et sacramentis repetit, ab aliis nefarie possessam et occupatam, summo jure omnium triumphorum laurea majore donandus. Is forte in suburbano nemore spatiatus (ut solent sumpto cibo aut festis diebus cives, qui otio abundant), cœpit faginos cortices principio in litterarum typos conformare, quibus, inversa ratione sigillatim chartæ impressis, versiculum unum atque alterum animi gratia ducebat, nepotibus, generi sui liberis exemplum futurum. Quod ubi feliciter successerat, cœpit animo altiora (ut erat ingenio magno et subacto) agitare primumque omnium atramenti scriptorii genus glutinosius tenaciusque, quod vulgare lituras trahere experiretur, cum genere suo Thoma Petro qui quatuor liberos reliquit, omnes ferme consulare dignitate functos (quod eo dico, ut artem in familia honesta et ingenua, haud servili, natam intelligant omnes), excogitavit, inde etiam pinaces totas figuratas additis caracteribus expressit. Quo in genere vidi ab ipso excussa adversaria, operarum rudimentum, paginis solum adversis, haud opistographis. Is liber erat vernaculo sermone ab auctore conscriptus anonymo, titulum præferens: _Speculum nostræ salutis_, in quibus id observatum fuerat inter prima artis incunabula (ut nunquam ulla simul reperta et absoluta est) uti paginæ aversæ glutine cohærescerent, ne illæ ipsæ vacuæ deformitatem adferrent. Postea faginas formas plumbeis mutavit, has deinceps stanneas fecit, quo solidior minusque flexilis esset materia durabiliorque; e quorum typorum reliquiis, quæ superfuerant, conflata œnophora vetustiora adhuc hodie visuntur in Laurentianis illis, quas dixi ædibus, in forum prospectantibus, habitatis postea a suo pronepote Gerardo Thoma, quem honoris causa nomino, cive claro ante paucos hos annos vita defuncto sene. Faventibus, ut fit, invento novo studiis hominum, quum nova merx, nunquam antea visa, emptores undique exciret, cum uberrimo quæstu creuit simul artis amor, creuit ministerium, additi familiæ operarum ministri, prima mali labes, quos inter Joannes quidam, sive is (ut fert suspicio) Faustus fuerit ominoso cognomine, hero suo infidus et infaustus, sive alius eo nomine, non magnopere laboro, quod silentum umbras inquietare nolim contagione conscientiæ, quondam dum viverent, tactas. Is ad operas excusorias sacramento dictus, postquam artem jungendorum characterum, fusilium typorum peritiam, quæque alia eam ad rem spectant, percalluisse sibi visus est, captato opportuno tempore quo non potuit magis idoneum inveniri, ipsa nocte, quæ Christi natalitiis solennis est, qua cuncti promiscue lustralibus sacri operari solent, choragium omne typorum involat, instrumentorum herilium, ei artificio comparatorum, supellectilem convasat, deinde cum fure domo se proripit, Amstelodamum principio adit, inde Coloniam Agrippinam, donec Magontiacum perventum est, ceu ad asyliaram, ubi quasi extra telorum jactum (quod dicitur) positus tuto degeret, suorumque furtorum aperta officina fructum huberem meteret. Nimirum ex ea intra vertentis anni spacium, ad annum a nato Christo 1442, iis ipsis typis, quibus Harlemi Laurentius fuerat usus, prodisse in lucem certum est _Alexandri Galli Doctrinale_, quæ Grammatica celeberrimo tunc in usu erat, cum _Petri Hispani tractatibus_, prima fœtura. Ista sunt ferme, quæ a senibus annosis, fide dignis, et qui tradita de manu in manum, quasi ardentem tædam in decursu acceperant, olim intellexi, et alios eadem referentes attestantesque comperi. Memini narasse mihi Nicolaum Galium, pueritiæ meæ formatorem, hominem ferrea memoria et longa canitie venerabilem, quod puer non semel audierit, Cornelium quendam bibliopegum ac senio gravem, nec octogenario minorem (qui in eadem officina subministrum egerat) tanta animi contentione ac fervore commemorantem rei gestæ seriem, inventi (ut ab hero acceperat) rationem, rudis artis polituram et incrementum, aliaque id genus, ut invito quoque præ rei indignitate lachrymæ erumperent, quoties de plagio inciderat mentio: tum vero ob ereptam furto gloriam sic ira exardescere solere senem, ut etiam lictoris exemplum eum fuisse editurum in plagiarium eum fuisse editurum in plagiarium appareret, si vita illi superfuisset: tum devovere consuevisse diris ultricibus sacrilegum caput, noctesque illas damnare atque execrari quas una cum scelere illo communi in cubili per aliquot menses exegisset. Quæ non dissonant a verbis Quirini Talesii Cos, eadem fere ex ore librarii ejusdem se olim accepisse mihi confessi, etc.--_Batavia_ p. 253, _et seq._

III.--THE HAARLEM-COSTER-LEGEND.

[The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing by Lourens Janszoon Coster, critically examined by Dr. A. VAN DER LINDE. Translated from the Dutch by J. H. HESSELS, with an Introduction and a Classified List of the Costerian Incunabula. _London_, Blades, East, and Blades. 1871. Roy. 8vo. pp. xxvi. and 170.]

A copy of the above work having reached me while the preceding sheet was being prepared for press, I am singularly gratified to find, that by means of a wholly independent process of investigation, I have arrived at a conclusion, almost identical, on the main point, with that to which other and more direct sources of information have led Dr. Van Der Linde. Writing for English readers, and dealing chiefly with the statements and arguments of the leading English Costerians, the confirmation thus given to my views is as great as it was unexpected.

Dr. Van Der Linde shews, most conclusively, that the whole story of the Origin of Printing in Haarlem arose from the fabrication of a pedigree by an innkeeper named Gerrit Thomaszoon, who was sheriff of Haarlem in the year 1545, and who died about the year 1563 or 1564. This pedigree, made a few years before his death, traces his descent from one Thomas Pieterssoen, by Lucye “his second wife, who was the daughter of Louris Janssoens Coster, who brought the first print into the world Anno 1446.” Authority for this statement there is absolutely none; and no proof whatever exists that Lucye the daughter of Louris Janssoens, ever existed otherwise than by her creation in the fertile fancy of the pedigree maker. But proof there is in abundance, that one Lourens Janszoon Coster kept a tallow-chandler’s shop in Haarlem between the years 1440 and 1450; that about the latter year he transferred that business to his sister, Ghertruit Jan Costersdochter, who died in 1454; he himself starting as an innkeeper in 1451, in which occupation he continued until 1483, when he left Haarlem with all his goods, and is heard of no more. This Lourens Coster was a member of a festive body, called the “Holy Christmas Corporation.” It consisted of 54 brethren and sisters, each one of whom possessed a chair specially set apart for him or her at their regular meetings. These chairs passed by inheritance or purchase from one to another; the corporation apparently having had its origin in a family gathering. Its transactions were minutely recorded, and particular care was taken to note the transmission of the chairs from one holder to another. Lourens Coster’s chair passed in 1484, (the record does not state how), into the possession of Frans Thomas Thomaszoon, and in 1497 Gerrit Thomaszoon Pieterszoon inherited it from his father. This is the individual who kept the inn on the market place, and was made sheriff in 1545. Now Jan Van Zuyren and Coornhert were partners in business, and “sworn book-printers” to the town in 1561, in which year Van Zuyren also became Burgomaster. They could not but have been intimate with the sheriff and innkeeper Gerrit Thomaszoon, who lived to the year 1563 or 1564. He would also be well known to Junius, living as he did in Haarlem from 1560 to 1572. In one of the rooms of his inn Gerrit Thomaszoon hung up the pedigree he had had made, and in which was set forth his descent from “Lucye, second wife of Thomas Pieterszoon, daughter of Louris Janssoens Coster, who brought the first print into the world Anno 1446.” Here then, as in a nutshell, lie the whole of the circumstances which Junius, in 1568, worked up in his _Batavia_ into an account of the Origin of Printing in Haarlem, by Laurens Janszoon Coster; but with the date of the pedigree altered from 1446 to 1440. The cogent reasons for this alteration are fully shewn by Dr. Van Der Linde.

The statements of Van Zuyren and Coornhert; the story of the family mansion, and the wine-pot relics; the cursings of the old book-binder Cornelis; the confirmations of the tale to Junius by Nicholas Galius and Quiryn Dirksz Talesius, are all now easily understood,--they were tavern gossip, suggested by the pedigree, which passing through the alembic of Junius’s brain, issued thence in the shape of a circumstantial history, which national vanity has been induced to accept as a record of indubitable facts.

From first to last, the Coster-legend forms a very singular chapter in the history of national credulity. Scriverius, writing in 1628, and not knowing the source of Junius’s information, makes one Lourens Janszoon, sheriff of Haarlem, who died in 1439, the Laurens Janszoon Coster,--(these names being as common in Haarlem as those of Brown, Jones and Smith in London,)--to whom was attributed the origin of printing; and to whose memory a stone statue was erected in 1722. In 1823 and 1824 bronze and silver jubilee medals were struck in honor of the same supposed first typographer, and two memorial stones put up; and in 1851, a third tablet was placed in front of the rebuilt Coster-house. But meanwhile, the pedigree is discovered, and Koning and others strive hard to identify the Lourens Janssoens Coster it mentions, with the Lourens Janszoon of Scriverius. Junius’s account is unscrupulously amended and altered and corrected, in order to make room for the views of subsequent writers; and another statue in bronze is resolved upon, which is erected in 1856; but this one, in the secret knowledge of the Committee engaged in its erection,[147] is to the memory of the tallow-chandler and innkeeper, and not to that of the alleged sheriff. Finally, the pedigree is published, all other documents connected with the persons named in it, and in the history by Junius, are critically examined; and in 1870 the fallacy of the whole affair is thoroughly exposed.

The conclusion to which Dr. Van Der Linde arrives in his chapter on “The Spread of Typography in the Netherlands,” is as follows:--

“The harvest of history on the field of typography concerning Haarlem may be scanty; it does not yield _anything_, as far as xylography goes. There existed there already very early a Lucasguild, like that at Antwerp, and like the Johannesgild at Bruges; but, however rich in painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths, the Haarlem Corporation may have been, it produces, notwithstanding the most patient researches, not a single _prenter_ (_briefprenter_) or xylographer. The manufacture, therefore, of a whole series of blockbooks of the 15th century, ascribed, two, three, and four centuries afterwards, without any shadow of evidence, to a Haarlem innkeeper, has to be referred to the empire of fiction.”

Mr. Hessels (a native of Haarlem, as is also Dr. Van Der Linde) says, in his very able Introduction: (p. vii.)

“Whatever may be said about the discrepancies and absurdities of the Coster-legend, now that we possess a full knowledge of it, there is one circumstance which has given, and will give, an air of probability to the story, even now that it is deprived of its hero, so long as this circumstance cannot be sufficiently accounted for. I mean the existence of a comparatively large number of works--blockbooks and incunabula--which are of an incontestably early, and Dutch origin, and which cannot, even at present, be ascribed to any known printer, but of which it is certain that they belong to the printer who produced the four editions of the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, the book referred to by Junius.”

He then gives, on pages xi. to xvi., a classified list of the Costeriana as far as known, amounting in all to 43 separate works and editions, distinguishing seven different types used in their production.

“The earliest date (he says) we can assign for the present to the Costeriana is 1471-74. Mr. Holtrop tells us on p. 31 of his Monuments, that the Hague copy of the Saliceto (No. 25 of his list) contains two MS. annotations: 1st, ‘Hunc librum emit dominus Conrardus abbas hujus loci XXXIII., qui obiit anno MCCCCLXXIIII, in profesto exaltationis sanctae crucis, postquam profuisset annis fere tribus.’ Another inscription indicates that this copy had belonged to the convent of St. James, at Lille. Now, the abbat Conrad, who bought this book for his convent, was Conrad du Moulin, who was abbat only from 1471 to 1474.

“This is the only date we can use at present. It is, as Mr. Bradshaw observes in his ‘List,’ mentioned above, ‘a singular circumstance that this one fact should compel us to place the printer of the Speculum at the head of the Dutch printers, though it only just allows him to take precedence of Ketelaer and De Leempt,’ from whom we have the date 1473, found in Peter Comestor, Scholastica hystoria.”--pp. xvii.-xviii.

The above considerations go far towards supporting the suggestions I have thrown out (see pages 323-348) in regard to the dates when, and the parties by whom, the _Speculum_, _Donatuses_, &c., were printed. And these suggestions are further confirmed by the extracts cited by Dr. Van Der Linde from the archives of Utrecht, in a note on p. 85 of Hessels’ Translation, where it is stated that in the year 1466, the name of Peter Dircxsz, described as a “beeldedrucker”--a _prenter_,--appears. “Perhaps,” adds Dr. Van Der Linde, “the printer of the plates of the Speculum.”

FOOTNOTES:

[147] The name of Lourens Janszoon, the sheriff of Haarlem who died in 1439, is mentioned seventy-six times in the archives of the city, but _never_ with the name of _Coster_. The name of the tallow-chandler Lourens Janszoon Coster, appears much later, (as late as 1483); _but his name was never brought before the public_, in connection with the origin of printing, until the year 1867.--See _Haarlem Legend_, pp. 124, 125.

IV.--CUT WOODEN, _versus_ CAST METAL TYPES.

However much my views may be found to coincide with those of Dr. Van Der Linde, Mr. Hessels, and Mr. Bradshaw, upon the Origin of Printing, and the date of the production of the so-called _Costeriana_, there may be wide differences of opinion on the question, whether the types made use of in the production of those works were made of wood or of metal. Dr. Van Der Linde writes upon this point in very dogmatic strains. In his eleventh chapter,--“A Beech in ‘Den Hout,’”--the object of which is to shew the impossibility of Junius’s statement about Coster having printed with wooden types, he quotes the following from Enschedé, written about the year 1770.

“‘I have exercised printing for about fifty years, and wood engraving for about forty-five years, and I have cut letters and figures for my father’s and my own printing office in wood of palm, pear, and medlar trees; I have now been a type-founder for upwards of thirty years; but to do such things as those learned gentlemen (Junius and Meerman) pretend that Laurens Coster and his heirs have done, neither I nor Papillon, (the most clever wood engraver of France) are able to understand, nor the artists Albrecht Durer, De Bray, and Iz. Van Der Vinne either; but such learned men, who dream about wooden, moveable letters, make Laurens Janszoon Coster use witchcraft, for the hands of men are not able to do it. To print a book with capitals of the size of a thumb, as on placards “HOUSE AND GROUND,” which are cut in wood, and which I have cut myself by hundreds, would be ridiculous; to do it with wooden letters of the size of a pin’s head is impossible. I have made experiments with a few of a somewhat larger size. I made a wooden slip of Text Corpus, and figured the letters on the wood or slip; thereupon I cut the letters; I had left a space of about the size of a saw between each letter on purpose, and I had no want of fine and good tools; the only question now was to saw the letters mathematically square off the slip. I used a very fine little saw, made of a very thin spring of English steel, so cleverly made, that I doubt whether our Laurens Janszoon had a saw half as good; I did all I could to saw the letters straight and parallel, but it was impossible: there was not a single letter which could stand the test of being mathematically square. What now to do? it was impossible to polish or file them; I tried it, but it could not be done by our type-founder’s whetstones, as it would have injured the letters. In short, I saw no chance, and I feel sure that no engraver is able to cut separate letters in wood, in such a manner that they retain their quadrature (for that is the main thing of the line in type-casting.) If, however, I wished to give my trouble and time to it, I should be able to execute the three words ‘Spiegel onzer Behoudenis,’ better than the Rotterdam artist has done in the Latin work of M. Meerman; but it is impossible, ridiculous, and merely chimerical, to print books in this manner.’”

The above quotation, in the opinion of Dr. Van Der Linde, settles the matter once for all; and certainly such a statement, from such a man, is enough to deter any one from attempting a similar experiment. Dr. Van Der Linde clinches Enschedé’s statement, with the following remarks:--

“We cannot wish for a more decisive and competent criticism of the story of Junius than this, given by a Haarlemer and a Costerian; for Junius represents Coster as having printed the Speculum in Dutch with wooden types; he makes him, in other words, do something impossible, ridiculous, and chimerical. It is true that the wooden types have been patronized until our times; that Camus has given a specimen of printing with wooden types of two lines, Wetter of one column, Schinkel of half a page; that we are able to do much more with the means of the nineteenth than with those of the fifteenth century; but none of those specimens have proved what they should have proved; the practicability of printing a book with moveable wooden letters, _i. e._ to distribute the forms, to clean the ink from the letters, to submit them to frequent strong pressing, and to retain the usefulness of the letters employed, and without the aid of modern apparatus. They have only proved what men are willing to do for a favorite opinion, for a prejudice which they _insist_, for once and all, ought to be _true_.”... “It is high time for criticism to make a fire of these imaginary wooden letters.”

Determined that the advocates of wooden letters shall be beaten completely out of the field, the Dr. adds, in a note upon Schinkel in the above quotation.

“In a brochure entitled ‘Tweetal Bijdragen,’ Schinkel gives some ‘experiments’ of his foreman H. le Blansch, namely, seven lines, printed with types of palm wood. The xylotypographic text runs:--‘That the first Dutch _Spiegel onzer Behoudenis_ was printed with cast types, is not to be doubted. Is it possible to print a book of some extension with _moveable_ letters cut of wood? YES.--Le Blansch, _sculp._’ This YES is an unproved dictum, the contrary of which is evident already from the dancing lines of the experiment. Let a _book_ be produced printed with moveable wooden letters, instead of all those experiments which signify nothing.... But apart from all this Costerian talk, the question may not be put as Schinkel did, but simply: Were ever books printed with moveable wooden letters? No.”--pp. 72-73.

It may however be retorted upon the Dr. that his No! is also an improved dictum. But he says again, pages 78 and 79:--

“Those fatal unhistorical wooden types! Wetter spent nearly the amount of ten shillings on having a number of letters made of the wood of a pear tree, only to please Trithemius, Bergellanus, and Faust of Aschaffenburg, the first two, falsifiers of history in good, the last in bad, faith. His letters, although tied with string, did not remain in the line, but made naughty caprioles. The supposition--that by these few dancing lines the possibility is demonstrated of printing with 40,000 wooden letters, necessary to the printing of a quaternion, a whole folio book--is dreadfully silly. The demonstrating fac-simile demonstrates already the contrary. Wetter’s letters not only declined to have themselves regularly printed, but they also retained their pear-tree-wood-like impatience afterwards. He says, ‘I have deposited the wooden types with their forms in the town-library, where they may be seen at any time.’ Nothing is more liberal.” “I not only deny” [with M. Bernard] adds the Dr., “that they [books printed with moveable wooden characters] exist at present--I deny that they ever have existed.”

Nothing can be more emphatic. But, in the first place, “40,000 wooden letters” are not “necessary to the printing of a quaternion, a whole folio book,”--and if they were, the supposition is not “dreadfully silly,” for it was quite within the power of letter-snyders to cut that number if required. But they were not required. I have already shewn (p. 299), that to print two pages of the _Speculum_ the number of letters necessary was under 3,000. It has also been shewn, that the early printers never printed more than one or two pages of their books at a time; while the impressions taken of such productions as the _Speculum_ would in their different editions vary from but 20 to 60 copies each;--3,000 letters therefore were ample for bringing out a whole folio book or quaternion, and the pressure the types were subjected to in the course of a dozen or twenty editions would not more than equal the strain brought to bear upon a single edition of a thousand copies in modern times. It is however “dreadfully silly” to insist, that wooden types, if capable of being used at all in an experiment which proves their capability of printing a portion of a book, ought also to be proved capable of being used for printing a whole book with. In other words, that a whole book should be printed with such types, in order to prove, that as a whole book has been, therefore, a whole book may have been, printed with them. It requires, moreover, no great profundity of wisdom to profess a disbelief in the making and use of wooden types by the inventors of Typography, and to deny the assertions of older and contemporary writers, that they were so made and used. A whole book could just as easily be printed with wooden types, when they were once prepared and ready for use, as half a book, or half a page, or a single word. The real question at issue is not, Can a single book, or has a single book, ever been printed with wooden types?--a question answered with an emphatic, although an unproved No! by Dr. Van Der Linde and other anti-xylo-typographers;--but, Did the earliest Typographers, in their first experiments, make use of wooden types or not? Trithemius says, on information derived from Schœffer senior, that they did. His statement is borne out by that of Zell, who says Gutenberg got the _beginning_ of this art from the Donatuses, _i. e._ block-books, printed in Holland. Bergellanus, an independent inquirer a generation later, and for fifteen years a corrector of the press at Mentz, confirms the statement of Trithemius; while Faust of Aschaffenburg declares that the family papers in his possession bore evidence to the same effect. What the first German printers did, it was most natural that the first Dutch printer would also do; and, as I have already pointed out (p. 346,) there are reasons for believing that wherever the _Speculum_[148] was printed, (and later information seems to indicate that Utrecht may have been the place), the types used were the work of a letter-snyder, and the material of which they were made was wood. It is quite a different question, Could a continued series of works, be produced by the use of wooden types, in a manner equal, or nearly equal, to that by which works are produced with metal types? To such a question, the advocates of the use, first, of wooden types by the earliest Typographers, reply, No; wooden types would only answer for a while; and because of their fragile nature, metal types, cut or cast, became sooner or later a necessity.[149] It is, besides, if not “dreadfully silly,” at least unwise, to argue against the possibility of the original use of wooden types, because the specimens given by Schinkel and Wetter are crooked and irregular, and do not _line_, although tied or strung together with string. Schinkel and Wetter both maintained that the _Speculum_ was printed with metal types; so did Enschedé. For either of the three, therefore, to have thoroughly succeeded with his experiment, would have been fatal to his argument and preconceived opinion. Doubtless, it was scarcely possible for Enschedé to succeed in making wooden letters of “a size somewhat larger than a pin’s head.” His mode of stating that part of his experiment is not at all so straightforward or clear as it might and should have been. But he says further, “I made a slip of Text Corpus, and figured the letters on the wood or slip,” &c. Now, what is the size of the Text Corpus? I am rather at a loss to understand this expression, as I find that the Dutch type called _Text_, is that which corresponds to the English Great Primer, which contains 51½ lines to a foot, while the _Garmond_, corresponding to the German _Corpus_, is equal to the English Long Primer, which has 89 lines to a foot. Neither does Enschedé say what particular wood he used in his experiment. But at any rate he avows, that, using the best and finest tools he could procure, he failed.

On the opposite side of the question, I have but to place my own experience; and I may say at the outset, that I have not practised wood engraving for nearly twenty years, that at best I was but an amateur, and that the only tools I had, when I ventured upon the experiment a few months ago, were a common graver, an ordinary tenon saw, a penknife, and a rasp and file. With these implements then, I made, precisely in the way I have described the method I supposed the earliest printers would follow, the letters inserted in page 310. They are of box wood, Pica-size (71½ lines to a foot) and are squared and line well, and are perforated and nicked, and are two sizes smaller than the letters used for the _Speculum_, which are only 54 lines to the foot. The letter =t= I here insert again. More than 1,500 impressions have been taken from it; and it scarcely yet seems anything the worse for wear. Calculating by the time the cutting of the three letters occupied, I could, without difficulty, finish in nine months 3,000 letters equally good, as mathematically square, as true to line, as capable of being used again and again, and therefore as capable of printing a book, a whole folio, with. An expert Chinese ‘chop’ cutter (the modern letter-snyder) would with his simple tools, complete the same number in less than a third of that time: and I know of no reason why similar types of the _Corpus_ or Long Primer size could not be cut on wood. Certainly there is nothing “impossible, ridiculous or chimerical” in the idea. Where then is the “silliness”--the “dreadful silliness”--of supposing that a whole book could be printed with such wooden types, even supposing, further, that 40,000 would be required in all? The “dreadful silliness” lies in the cry of those who argue on the opposite side--“Let a _book_ be produced, printed with moveable wooden letters, instead of all those experiments which signify nothing.” The answer to that cry is, _Cui bono?_--Why should a book be printed, when 3 letters are as good as 3,000, or 30,000, or 300,000, to demonstrate the fact, that words are and can be, and that therefore pages and whole books may be, (and therefore also that they may have been,) printed from such separable wooden types? As well might the demand be made that a whole suburb of London should be lighted up with obsolete oil-lamps, in order to demonstrate to the rising generation the fact, that in that manner the streets of the city were lighted up in the days of their forefathers, before the introduction of coal gas. In the one case, as in the other, a single specimen, one demonstrative example, ought to be sufficient to carry, to every candid and reasonable mind, a conviction of the truth of the asserted fact. But perhaps it “signifies nothing” to a certain class, who are determined not to believe, how great or how small the demonstrative experiments may be. Of such, the voice of supreme wisdom has long ago declared,--“neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

FOOTNOTES:

[148] Dr. Van Der Linde infers that the Latin edition of the Speculum, wholly printed with separable types, was the first, and the one with the twenty pages of solid blocks, the second. From the fact, that the curious manuscript of the “_Spiegel der behoudenis_,” (written on 290 8vo. leaves of vellum), which is preserved at Haarlem, has the following inscription at the end, “Dit boec is gheeyndet int jaer ons here_n_ MCCCC en_de_ III en_de_ tsestich opte_n_ XVI dach in jul. Een ave Maria on God voer die scrijver;” and that another inscription in it states, that it belonged to “Cayman Janszoen of Zierickzee, living with the Carthusians near Utrecht;” the Dr. comes to the following conclusion: “Therefore, the Speculum was written, and finished in the Dutch language at Utrecht in 1464, in the days _before_ the introduction of the art of printing.”... “Utrecht had an episcopal see, a gymnasium, a Burgundian prince,--indeed, if hypotheses are allowed, then is that of an _Utrecht_ origin of the Specula provisionally, the only reasonable one.”--pp. 34, 38.

[149] Seven different kinds of types of the _Speculum_ school have been identified, and these are used in 43 different specimens, many of which are second and subsequent editions. It is not however, material to the validity of the argument, that the whole of these seven different kinds of types should be proved to have been made of wood; it is enough, in the absence of the actual types themselves, that there is reasonable evidence, from their appearance in print, as well as from the probabilities of the case, that some of them were so made. To argue, that because Trithemius, Bergellanus, J. F. Faust, or others, may have misrepresented, unintentionally or otherwise, some of the leading facts in connection with the origin, or the inventors, of typography, therefore, on this one point of the original use of wooden letters, in which they all agree, they are not to be believed, is unworthy of one who assumes the functions of, and desires to be looked up to as, a sound historical critic.

ERRATA.

Page 104 last line, for _Vindicæ_ read _Vindiciæ_ ” 153 ” ” Opolio ” Opilio ” 175 line 10, ” have to ” have had to ” 181 ” 8, ” Historv ” History ” 239 ” 8, ” say, ” says ” 331 ” 17, ” follows ” follow

_Dedicated, by Special Permission, to_ HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH.

_Foolscap 4to. 412 pages._

ADAM’S PEAK.

LEGENDARY, TRADITIONAL, AND HISTORIC NOTICES of the SAMANALA and SRI´-PA´DA; with a Descriptive Account of the PILGRIMS’ ROUTE from Colombo to the Sacred Foot-print; to which are added, copious Notes, Appendices, and an Index. Illustrated by a Map of the Mountain District, and 10 wood-engravings.

By WILLIAM SKEEN.

EDWARD STANFORD, 6 & 7, Charing Cross, London, S. W. 1871.

* * * * *

_Opinions of the Press._

* * * * *

“Adam’s Peak may be considered the most interesting mountain in the world; not only from its height, position, and appearance, but as being sacred to the members of three out of the four great religions of the world. The origin of this singular agreement to regard the same place as holy by these three religions is to some extent obscure; but Mr. Skeen has collected a mass of evidence upon the subject, and has conveyed the result in a form interesting alike to the student and the general reader. The lovely scenery surrounding Adam’s Peak, its general features, and its perilous ascent--so steep that near the summit chains are fastened into the rock by which pilgrims pull themselves up--are graphically described by Mr. Skeen, who accomplished the ascent three times. The book is of great interest, and we can warmly recommend it to our readers.”--_Standard._

* * * * *

“There is, perhaps, no mountain in the world of which so wide-spread a knowledge exists, and yet of which so little is generally and definitely known, as Adam’s Peak, in the Island of Ceylon. A description of this mountain, held sacred by far the largest portion of mankind, cannot fail to be of interest to the scholar; while the pleasing and anecdotal manner in which it is handled by Mr. Skeen, will attract the attention of even the most superficial reader. All classes will read the book with interest. It is brimfull of rich stores of original translations from rare MSS of Indian and Sin̥halese literature, while the strange legends recorded are singularly romantic, and full of weird Eastern imagery. The author enters into a full and searching inquiry into the origin of the sanctity of the mount, and shows much discrimination and mastery of Oriental literature, in the progress of his inquiry. Much valuable information is imparted to the reader, not dry and dull as might be imagined, but invested with an interest which catches and retains the attention. The legends attached to this mount of expiation are singularly beautiful, and are related very felicitously by the author. Much interesting information is given about the inhabitants of Ceylon, and of the various religious beliefs which are held by them, from the serpent worship of the aborigines, to the present time, when Christian churches are scattered throughout the island. The civil and political history of the Sin̥halese is also accurately and interestingly traced. The narrative of the pilgrims’ route from Colombo to the shrine-crowned mount is very graphically described. The work is excellently illustrated with maps, plans, and views. In every particular it deserves commendation, and the author much praise for the successful manner in which he has handled his materials, and presented the public with a book at once interesting and instructive; profound in the researches contained in it, and giving much valuable information on a subject on which so little has hitherto been known.”--_Irish Times._

* * * * *

“We believe this is the first time that a complete work has been devoted to this subject. The narrative portion of the work is supplemented by copious notes and appendices referring to the early history of the religions the members of which regard the Peak as a hallowed spot. These are of immense value to the historian and antiquarian, and prove that the author is no idle member of the Royal Asiatic Society.”--_London and China Express._

* * * * *

“Mr. SKEEN, in his monogram entitled “ADAM’S PEAK,” has shewn that the subject was by no means exhausted by his predecessors, and has given us an interesting volume of Eastern lore and travel. Commencing with history, he fortifies his narrative by extracts from the antient Mahawanso, and various other native and foreign writers down to the present day. Having amply treated of its history, he proceeds to describe his own three visits to it, giving very full particulars of his route, and of places of interest in the vicinity. The volume does credit to both author and printer.”--_Trübner’s American and Oriental Literary Record._

* * * * *

“A very valuable monograph on Adam’s Peak, embodying a vast amount of interesting information. Mr. Skeen has, in connection with this work, cleared up a mystery which had baffled all previous writers on Ceylon.”--_Ceylon Observer._

* * * * *

“It has long been a wonder, and the wonder is a growing one, that so small an Island as Ceylon should attract so many writers. All the Books on Ceylon, about Ceylon, and touching Ceylon, if collected into one group, we are certain, would make a goodly library of itself, but the subject appears to be inexhaustible. The most recent contribution to this accretion of works on Ceylon, or rather touching Ceylon, is Mr. Skeen’s Book on Adam’s Peak, which, without laying ourselves open to the charge of indiscriminate or extravagant praise, we feel justified in pronouncing worthy the subject, and worthy the writer. Mr. Skeen has at last got into his natural groove, the exploration and elucidation of the romantic traditions, legends, and folk-lore which cluster round the sacred places of Ceylon. Adam’s Peak is pre-eminently a land-mark in the history of the Island, and while it serves to bridge twenty centuries of the past with the present, it has never lost its own peculiar distinctive character, which as the central object of a nation’s faith it has for so long occupied. As it is the most conspicuous and remarkable object in the physical geography of the Island, so has it stood the everlasting monument of a tradition, pointing to the mission of that great philosopher who, more than twenty centuries ago, succeeded in revolutionizing the faith of a whole continent. It is somewhat remarkable that a religion which aspires after annihilation and extinction of all corporeal existence, should yet recognize the imperishable, rock-crowned mountain, as one of the symbols of its faith. Mr. Skeen does not enter into the metaphysics of this question. His business has been to trace out the old traditions and legends, and while refraining from expressing an opinion himself, he has supplied the reader with abundant material from which to draw his own conclusions. He carries us throughout the whole range of ancient Eastern lore; and from the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, down to the most recent works on the Island, he has ransacked the dark recesses of oriental literature, to illustrate his subject. Mr. Skeen has entered on his task in a spirit of research, and influenced by the strong poetic vein for which he has hitherto been so well known, he has embellished his subject--a subject which in the hands of a mere antiquarian threatened to become dull and prosy--with the life and spirit of romance.

Mr. Skeen, as we have already observed, has ransacked all the authorities, ancient and modern, that could throw light on his subject, and it is no small praise to state, that he has added to a great power of research an admirable talent for condensation, while his own narrative of personal investigation and exploration, written in flowing easy language, often rising to the height of poetry, presents the gorgeous scenes which he describes in an animated tableau that brings within one focus, the cloud-capped mountains, the roaring torrents and the arid plains, through which lies the course of the pilgrims. It is hardly possible to imagine, looking at the heads of chapters in the table of contents, how Mr. Skeen could manage to reduce the heterogeneous mass of subjects indicated into one harmonious whole, but the reader has only to take up the narrative, and he scarcely perceives the transition from one to another.

We have great pleasure in recommending the Book to the Public. It is even worthy to stand by the best that has been written of Ceylon, and its value as a very readable book is enhanced by the use to which it may be put as a work of reference, not only with regard to the Peak itself, but also, to the History of the Island generally. The book is illustrated with a map of the Peak range, and ten well-executed woodcuts illustrative of the Peak and its accessories; and, with a copious and well-arranged Index, it is admirably calculated to serve as a guide to those whom Mr. Skeen’s Book may inspire with the desire of exploring the mountain region which has continued to attract to its sacred pinnacle the Traveller, the Historian, and the Pilgrim, from the days when Sindbad the Sailor “made a pilgrimage to the place where ADAM was confined after his banishment from Paradise.”--_Colombo Examiner._

* * * * *

“THE author of ‘ADAM’S PEAK,’ has accomplished a most difficult task uncommonly well.”

“The book opens with introductory remarks on the origin of Buddhist, Hindu, and other pilgrimages to Adam’s Peak. With Chapter III. the author commences an account of a pilgrimage to the holy mountain made by himself and three companions, and which forms a kind of cabinet made to contain the curiosities, with an inspection of which the author indulges us. In a pleasant chatty style the literary pilgrim-author describes the road to Avissáweḷa, dwelling upon all objects worthy of remark by the way, and noting all historical facts and curious legends connected with the towns and villages through which he passed. Leaving Avissáweḷa, the pilgrimage is continued towards what was for long considered the loftiest mountain in Ceylon, Adam’s Peak; entertaining details being given of “Síta’s bath,” the Mániyan̥gama vihára or rock temple, and the Saman Déwálé, where the author mentions finding a most curious mural stone. After giving us a description of the curious old town of Ratnapura, the pilgrims again start onwards. After passing Palábaddala, where the travellers obtain a view of the Peak, which is greeted by cries of “Sadhu!” by all true pilgrims, the most enjoyable portion of the journey appears to begin. We can only pause long enough to draw the reader’s attention to the interesting passages about elephants contained in chapter VI., and their supposed habit of retiring to one spot when about to die, and the curious legend of the Bẹ́na Samanala, or “False Peak,” in the same chapter. Space will not allow us to do more than glance at the Kuruwiṭa Falls, and the halt at Hẹramiṭipána, where the congregation of pilgrims is graphically described.

There are many men who have determination and curiosity sufficient to induce them to set out on three different pilgrimages, which in spite of the pleasant places through which the way lies, plainly entailed much fatigue and inconvenience, but there are few gifted with the great powers of observation which the writer of “Adam’s Peak” evidently possesses, or the ability to express their impressions which he evinces. Whether toiling over a mountain, rambling amidst the ruins of an old Buddhist temple, or excavating those curiosities of fact and tradition of which but for this literary pilgrim we should have remained in ignorance, the author has in almost every page got something new to tell us about, which he relates in a remarkably happy way.

Having attentively perused “Adam’s Peak,” it remains for us to pass upon it our carefully formed opinion. In a former notice we said that the author had “accomplished a most difficult task uncommonly well,” and we reiterate our statement. To have compressed so much useful knowledge into so small a compass can only be the result of deep research and hard and persevering study. Mr. Skeen has collected a number of local traditions, legends, and facts, which he has elaborately arranged, and by a pleasant account of incidents connected with his three pilgrimages to the holy mountain, unites the whole in a pleasing and sightly form. The book abounds in quotations which are generally apt and appropriate. The foot notes and copious appendix form by no means the least valuable part of the work.”--_Ceylon Times._

* * * * *

“In a careful perusal of the above production [ADAM’S PEAK] we have been most favorably impressed with its general character and ability; the labour that produced it must have been most painstaking, and involving great research. Nearly a hundred authors are quoted or referred to for confirmation or illustration of the text, which, with well executed engravings, a large and interesting Appendix, and an excellent Index for facility of reference, becomes a most useful addition to Eastern literature. Besides the direct textual matter of the book concerning the Peak, its history, and the pilgrimages made to it, we have a large amount of very interesting particulars respecting the Geology, Botany, and History of the Island, and the religions, manners and customs of the people, with much legendary and traditional lore, which, if not always reliable, is not without either interest or importance, in the assistance it affords to a fuller knowledge of the country and its inhabitants. Indeed the book is almost of encyclopedic utility concerning Ceylon.

For a knowledge of the route, viâ Ratnapura, and of its many interests and attractions of scenery, &c., and also for the many delights of the Peak itself, as given by our author, we recommend a careful perusal of his most interesting and able work.”--_Colombo Friend._

MOUNTAIN LIFE AND COFFEE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON;--A POEM ON THE KNUCKLES RANGE, with other Poems. By WILLIAM SKEEN. 1870.

_Foolscap 4to. 182 pp._ EDWARD STANFORD, Charing Cross, London.

* * * * *

“Adam’s Peak,” and “Mountain Life and Coffee Cultivation in Ceylon,”--two companion volumes devoted to one of our most interesting though least known Eastern possessions ... abound in local colour and afford life-like glimpses into the industry of the society of an island which the Anglo-Cingalese not unpardonably regard as the centre of the earth.”--_Daily Telegraph._

* * * * *

“The poem contains interesting historical records which evince considerable research and extensive reading; also a very full account of the processes of planting the Coffee tree, of collecting the berries, and preparing them for use and exportation. As a picture of Eastern life and industry this book is not only interesting but instructive.”--_The Messenger._

* * * * *

“IN the main poem Mr. Skeen records the impressions derived from a visit to the Knuckles District, and in the text alludes to, while in the notes he affords, valuable information respecting historical personages and events. The specimens quoted will give our readers some idea of a poem in which, clustered round the scenery of the Knuckles, we have described to us a large portion of the incidents of coffee planting life, much history, ancient and modern, more or less connected with the coffee enterprise, with striking references to Hindu mythology. The notes, which explain the brief allusions in the poem, embody a fund of interesting and curious information. The work is probably the most beautifully got up that has ever issued from the local press, and we trust the venture will be largely encouraged.”--_Ceylon Observer._

* * * * *

“The main poem treats of a well known Coffee District, its magnificent scenery, its hospitable planters, and its prosperity. There is abundant evidence in the poem that Mr. Skeen does not now come before the public for the first time. He has at least the assurance, gained from experience, to encourage him in his aspirations; and if he has not quite succeeded in establishing a poetic reputation of the highest order, he yet gives ample promise of better results in the future. With a wonderful facility for versification, and an inexhaustible resource for rhyme, Mr. Skeen has amplified his subject in a manner which less practised or more timorous hands would hardly have dared. We can recommend the book as well worthy perusal, not only for the sake of its poetic beauties, but also on account of the valuable mass of information it contains both in the body of the main poem, and the copious notes at the end.”--_Colombo Examiner._

* * * * *

“One of the most attractive volumes of flowing verse that Ceylon has ever sent forth. The typography is perfect, the general getting up of the book all that could be desired, and the verses are highly descriptive.”--_Ceylon Times._

EARLY TYPOGRAPHY, A LECTURE ON LETTER-PRESS PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. By WILLIAM SKEEN. 1853. Sm. 8vo. 48 pp. (_out of print_)

“This little work, issued from the [Ceylon] Government Press, does credit to the author and printer alike.... We can say in all truth and honesty, that the work of Mr. Skeen would reflect credit on any Printing Office in the world. He has certainly illustrated what has been done for the improvement of Printing in Ceylon by _himself_, for to him it is entirely due. He has issued a pamphlet of sound historical matter, carefully written, admirably printed, and on excellent paper. The matter consists of a history of the discovery of the Art of Printing and its various improvements, down to the close of the Fifteenth Century; and while it contains much new and interesting matter, there is but one fault to find with it:--it is too short, and stops at a very interesting point.... We welcome such works with the right hand of fellowship; and in conclusion, we will only add, that we hope Mr. Skeen will have the inclination and leisure to complete this history of the Art of Printing, in the first part of which, now published, he has imparted his information in so agreeable a manner, and illustrated the present state of the Art by so perfect an example.”--_Colombo Examiner_, [1853.]

Transcriber’s Note:

Equals signs indicate the word or character was printed in an ornate font, for example, =Ornate font=

The tilde character in ~TYPOGRAPHY~ indicates spaced letters

Some fonts may not render the following characters as expected:

n under ring --Sin̥halese --Sy-chong-n̥gén-pon --Mámyan̥gama

dot under --e and d in Wẹlikaḍa --l in Avissáweḷa --é in Bẹ́na --t in Kuruwiṭa and Hẹramiṭipána

Items in the Errata listed on page 424 have been changed. Otherwise, no known changes to spelling or punctuation as appeared in the original publication have been made except as follows:

Page 22 papier-maché castings _changed to_ papier-mâché castings

Page 243 by the name of the printing house.” _changed to_ by the name of the printing house.’”

Page 316 “NO ONE KNOWS; yet it seems _changed to_ “NO ONE KNOWS;” yet it seems

the assistants of Guttenberg, Faust and Schœffer _changed to_ the assistants of Gutenberg, Faust and Schœffer

Page 383 and eighth formes: the next quaternion _changed to_ and eighth formes; the next quaternion

Page 417 ‘experiments of his foreman H. le Blansch _changed to_ ‘experiments’ of his foreman H. le Blansch

Page 420 that of Zell, who says Gutenburg _changed to_ that of Zell, who says Gutenberg

Page 421 were the work of a letter-synder _changed to_ were the work of a letter-snyder

Page i pleasing and anecdotal manner it which _changed to_ pleasing and anecdotal manner in which

Page ii little has hitherto been known. _changed to_ little has hitherto been known.”

Page iv only interesting but instructive.--_The Messenger._ _changed to_ only interesting but instructive.”--_The Messenger._

Footnote 11 Monumens Typographiques des Pays Bays _changed to_ Monumens Typographiques des Pays Bas

Sieclé _changed to_ Siècle

Footnote 17 Thomas á Kempis, according to Meiners, _changed to_ Thomas à Kempis, according to Meiners,

Footnote 63 plusquam 4000 florenorem _changed to_ plusquam 4000 florenorum

Footnote 79 Introduction Historique et Bibliographique. _changed to_ Introduction Historique et Bibliographique.”

Footnote 83 Harlem, 1628. 4to. _changed to_ Haarlem, 1628. 4to.

Footnote 98 clarum nomem Mogus _changed to_ clarum nomen Mogus

Footnote 107 The attitude of the statute, nobly draped _changed to_ The attitude of the statue, nobly draped

Footnote 139 Justiniani codex institutionem _changed to_ Justiniani codex institutionum

Footnote 140 that William Tydnale’s version of the _changed to_ that William Tyndale’s version of the

by Joann. Schæffier _changed to_ by Joann. Schæffler